Mexico's Pumas football team to open training center in Peru

The National Autonomous University of Mexico's (UNAM) football club, Pumas, announced on Saturday they would soon be opening a training center in Peru.

The announcement, besides re-inforcing the junior leagues, will open up a range of opportunities for younger generations who want to get into football, said Pumas training center administrative, Abel Larrauri during an interview with Xinhua.

This June, the final details regarding the first center in Peru are expected to be announced. With this training center, the Pumas will add to their 50 centers in Mexico and eight in the U.S.

The administrative manager commented that there was another project in the pipeline in Chile and did not dismiss the possibility of opening training centers in Europe and Asia further down the line.

In total, there are 6,000 students under 18, divided into age groups from five to 17 years old. Players between 14 and 15 start to show their potentials, said the manager.

"We bring the kids that have talent to La Cantera where we give them a two week trial period. If they are suitable, including if they have emotional maturity, we invite them to stay to play in our lower leagues," he continued.

The central training school, where football legends such as Hugo Sanchez, Luis Garcia, Jorge Campos, Claudio Suarez and Alberto Garcia Aspe were trained, is in the south of the Mexican capital and is known as "La Cantera" (the reserve of young players).

Larrauri said that the methodology of these centers is so that young ones can get into football without necessarily having to be Mexican. For example, in the U.S. training centers, Mexican, U.S., Chilean, Argentinean and even African children are involved.

"In these training centers, the main objective is to develop, through football, and offer the children a training tool that is not only useful for sports, but also in education drawn from the policies and ideology of UNAM," explained the manager.

Those training centers are also open for Chinese young players, said Enrique A. Paredes Cepeda, director of comercialization and coperations of Pumas, "we sincerely welcome Chinese talents".

All the training centers, are considered by the Pumas managerial staff as the hotbed for professional players. They are protected by the experience of the club and also receive an official degree from the UNAM as continuing their studies to university level is one of the requirements of the club.

Currently, the club has plans to open training centers in various parts of Mexico including the states of Veracruz, Chiapas, Baja California and Sinaloa.

"Talent exists, Mexico is a football-loving country, therefore all we have to do is discover it, polish it and let it play here with the Pumas," concluded Larrauri. Endi