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"Barcakids" celebrate incorporation of football into Chinese academic system

Xinhua, October 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

FC Barcelona Foundation on Saturday co-organized a speical "Barcakids" session to celebrate the inclusion of football as a subject in the curricula of primary and secondary schools in China.

Around 250 children from the Chinese community of Catalonia, northeast Spain participated in the session held in the Escuela Pia Nuestra Senora in Barcelona.

The children were divided into groups of 40 in order to work the five values promoted by the project: effort, respect, humility, teamwork and ambition. After working on that they put these concepts into practice in several football matches.

First vice president of FC Barcelona, Jordi Cardoner i Casaus, and the new Consul General of China in Barcelona, Tang Heng, also attended the event organized by the FC Barcelona Foundation and the Chinese Education Foundation of Catalonia.

The fact that China "incorporates football as an academic discipline in its educational system is very important, it is for us, it is for China," Cardoner told Xinhua.

"It implies a recognition that football is not just a sport, football is part of culture, part of what we want our children and our grandchildren to understand, which is the quality of the values, the knowledge of sharing, what we call teamwork, not be selfish, be humble, effort, sacrifice," he said.

Asked if someday the FC Barcelona will have a Chinese player, Cardoner said that "a great Chinese player has already been born, who within 15-20 years will be in the headlines of every newspaper in the world."

"Barcakids" is a program of FC Barcelona Foundation that promotes the values among children through sport, encouraging an active and inclusive participation. The project is carried out in more than 50 countries and so far has had the participation of more than 400,000 children.

This project was launched from the 2011/12 season and is aimed at children aged 6-12 years, but also aims to involve families and the community in a broader sense. Enditem