While football's top stars take advantage of the chance to showcase their skills on a worldwide stage following the return of the UEFA Champions League, La Manga Club's new High Performance Football Centre has also proved an instant global hit with players eager to make their professional breakthrough – attracting interest from five of the world's seven continents.

Well-known worldwide as a first-choice destination for training breaks, the award-winning Spanish resort has been inundated with enquiries since launching the new initiative at the start of the year, with players from North America, South America, Africa, Asia and Europe all signing up to the new ground-breaking facility.

The world's first centre of its kind at a resort, La Manga Club – which has hosted global superstars including the likes of David Beckham, Lionel Messi and Zinedine Zidane in recent years – is offering professionals, both established and aspiring, the chance to sign up to one of its new comprehensive, fully residential programmes to help display their talents and further their careers.

And such has been the initial level of response that players from countries including England, Spain, Uruguay, Ivory Coast, Canada, Morocco and Japan have jumped at the chance to join the exciting new centre – with two players already signing for Spanish clubs after using the centre.

Chad Harpur, director of sports at La Manga Club, said: “There really is no other product like this anywhere. The centre is a first of its kind in the world and to have already helped two players to sign for new clubs is a fantastic start for us.

“The reaction and feedback that we have had since opening has been very positive. We are receiving plenty of interest all the time in our players from clubs all over Europe and everything bodes very well for the future.

“According to FIFA statistics, only one per cent of footballers around the world are ever seen by clubs, scouts or agents, and that is the real beauty of the centre. With us, agents can train and showcase their players to clubs, coaches and scouts visiting during winter and pre-season training camps and international friendly competitions, while also offering injured players the chance to get fit again.

“As we like to say at La Manga Club, we speak sport. Football is embedded in the resort's history and will continue to play a major role in the future success of the resort, with the new centre at the forefront.”

Open to footballers of all nationalities, players training at the La Manga Club High Performance Football Centre will be coached, mentored and looked after by the resort's team of experts including UEFA-qualified coaches – led by head coach Juan Pedro Benali, who has more than 20 year's experience coaching teams across the world – professional sport and exercise scientists, physiotherapists, nutritionists and football analysts to help them reach their full potential.

Using La Manga Club's world-class facilities including eight FIFA-approved grass pitches, players will not only be able to improve their fitness and technique at the elite centre, but also have the chance to gain competitive experience and impress watching scouts by playing in friendly matches - including against professional clubs from around the world staying at the resort.

In the past year alone, La Manga Club has played host to more than 150 professional teams and around 500 scouts through a range of training breaks, pre-season tournaments and friendly matches.

With the La Manga Club High Performance Football Centre, players will receive first-class professional coaching that will transform their technical, tactical, psychological and physical abilities into those required of a professional footballer.

As well as eight international-standard pitches, the centre's elite facilities also include a match pitch with stand accommodating 800 spectators, a wide range of soccer training equipment, changing rooms, professional fitness facilities, a biomechanics lab, physio and massage facilities, meeting rooms, spa with hydromassage baths, hot and cold recovery pools, sauna and steam rooms, as well as an extensive choice of restaurants and leisure facilities.

In addition, players will also have access to La Manga Club's new High Performance Sports Centre which, created in conjunction with the Catholic University of Murcia, offers a comprehensive range of services designed to enable players to optimise and monitor their sporting performance, prevent injuries and boost their health and fitness.

Known for its extensive facilities, La Manga Club has hosted the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Celtic and Shakhtar Donetsk in the recent years and the resort is busier than ever this winter with sides from all over Europe visiting, including Borussia Dortmund, Anderlecht, Dynamo Zagreb and CSKA Moscow.

Set in 1,400 acres, the resort boasts unrivalled facilities as a sports and leisure destination including three 18-hole championship golf courses, a 28-court tennis centre and a 2,000sqm spa and fitness centre. It also offers the choice of a five-star hotel, four-star serviced apartments and townhouses and more than 20 bars and restaurants.

For more information about the La Manga Club High Performance Football Centre, contact Chad Harpur on +34 968 33 1234, email chad.harpur@lamangaclub.com . For further details about La Manga Club, visit www.lamangaclub.com.

ENDS

Information for journalists

Press release written and distributed on behalf of La Manga Club by the Azalea Group.

La Manga Club
La Manga Club – www.lamangaclub.com – is an unrivalled sports and leisure paradise which sits between the low hills that separate the Mediterranean from the Mar Menor Sea, just 20 minutes from Murcia airport and an hour from Alicante.

Set out over an area of some 560 hectares (approx. 1,400 acres), it enjoys a mild year-round Mediterranean climate and offers visitors a prestigious five-star hotel, luxury vacation apartments and extensive sports facilities, including three championship golf courses, a new Leadbetter Golf Academy – the only one in mainland Spain – a 28-court tennis centre and eight grass sports pitches. The resort is also home to innumerable leisure facilities, such as the 2,000m2 Spa La Manga Club with its 13 luxurious treatment rooms, comprehensive fitness centre and 25m indoor swimming pool; meeting, banqueting and incentive facilities, and more than 20 restaurants and bars.

As well as hosting both Davis and Fed Cup tennis matches, La Manga Club has signed a long-term deal to be the overseas training resort of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) until 2016. It has also staged the Spanish Open golf championship and regularly attracts professional and international football teams to the first-class year-round training facilities which are also used by rugby and cricket sides.

As a result of more than 40 years of continued investment, innovation and commitment to excellence, La Manga Club is widely recognised as Spain's flagship resort and as one of the finest sports and lifestyle destinations in the world. Evidence of this is provided by its numerous awards and accolades.

La Manga Club was the proud recipient of a 2013 Certificate of Excellence from TripAdvisor, the world's largest travel website, for the facilities and service on offer at its five-star Hotel Principe Felipe. The resort has been voted 'Best Golf Hotel/Resort in Spain' by UK readers of Today's Golfer magazine for the last three years and was named 'Best Golf Hotel in Spain' at the 2014 World Golf Awards. La Manga Club has long been a staunch supporter of women's golf, being the official overseas resort partner of the English Women's Golf Association for three years as well as hosting the Ladies European Tour (LET) Qualifying School from 2009-12. La Manga Club is also the venue for the Ladies Murcia Open, an LET Access Series event, and regularly hosts top women's amateur events and teams.

• High-resolution images of La Manga Club may be downloaded for editorial purposes from http://goo.gl/4VLuvf

For more information on La Manga Club contact Pete Simm on 01730 711920 or email petes@theazaleagroup.com