{"id":90646,"date":"2025-11-21T17:08:52","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T17:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/spanish-club-real-betis-launches-football-academy-in-gambia"},"modified":"2025-11-21T17:43:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T17:43:14","slug":"spanish-club-real-betis-launches-football-academy-in-gambia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/spanish-club-real-betis-launches-football-academy-in-gambia","title":{"rendered":"Spanish Club Real Betis Launches Football Academy in Gambia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>At the 2025 World Travel Market (WTM) in London, The Gambia\u2019s tourism stand attracted international attention, including notable visitors like Daniel Guardia, Chief Commercial Officer of Spain\u2019s Real Betis, who revealed concrete plans to launch a football academy and youth development camp in The Gambia by January 2026.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Speaking in an interview with this medium, Daniel described Africa and The Gambia in particular as a continent \u201cfull of talent\u201d and central to the club\u2019s long-term development strategy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfrica is the future. People love football. It\u2019s not just training; it\u2019s education, values, teamwork,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we started last year will continue. Next January 2026, we will start our first academy and campBy in The Gambia. We are more than happy to begin this meaningful partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The reason for choosing The Gambia, he noted, is in connection with the country, both cultural and strategic. Born and raised in Barcelona, he highlighted the strong African community in Spain and the ease of travel between the two nations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are a lot of Gambians in Spain. We are very close. This collaboration will help us discover new players and young talent. Africa is full of it,\u201d he said, referencing the high number of African players in major tournaments, including the UEFA Champions League.<\/p>\n<p>Real Betis\u2019s vision extends beyond setting up an academy, says the club intends to create channels for talented Gambian players to also train abroad and possibly advance into professional football.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will select players, develop their talent, and I\u2019m sure some will travel to Seville to train with us,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe can also arrange international camps with players from our academies. Developing young talent worldwide is part of our core mission.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Spanish club executive emphasized that the academy is only the beginning of their engagement with The Gambia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will do more for communities and neighbourhoods that need support,\u201d he said. \u201cFootball is a universal language. It\u2019s a tool to help young people grow, not just as footballers but as individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He hinted at broader tourism-related investments, inspired by the models of Rwanda and Congo, which have successfully used sports partnerships to increase global brand visibility.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy not Gambia?\u201d he asked rhetorically, saying, \u201cWe want to help the country grow in terms of brand awareness and attract more visitors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Within a few years, he expressed his vision, Gambian players would rise to compete in top European leagues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would be a pleasure to see Gambian players in La Liga. That will show the importance of what we are doing; it\u2019s a great project to build together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The initiative is expected to boost both sports development and sports tourism, positioning The Gambia as an emerging hub for international football collaboration, he expressed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Gambia<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. At the 2025 World Travel Market (WTM) in London, The Gambia\u2019s tourism stand attracted international attention, including notable visitors like Daniel Guardia, Chief Commercial Officer of Spain\u2019s Real Betis, who revealed concrete plans to launch a football academy and youth development camp in The Gambia by January 2026. Speaking in an interview [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":90645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-90646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Spanish Club Real Betis Launches Football Academy in Gambia - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At the 2025 World Travel Market (WTM) in London, The Gambia\u2019s tourism stand attracted international attention, includ ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/spanish-club-real-betis-launches-football-academy-in-gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Spanish Club Real Betis Launches Football Academy in Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At the 2025 World Travel Market (WTM) in London, The Gambia\u2019s tourism stand attracted international attention, includ ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/spanish-club-real-betis-launches-football-academy-in-gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-21T17:08:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-21T17:43:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/11\/sm_1763734366.683562.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/spanish-club-real-betis-launches-football-academy-in-gambia#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/spanish-club-real-betis-launches-football-academy-in-gambia\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Spanish Club Real Betis Launches Football Academy in Gambia\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-21T17:08:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-21T17:43:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/spanish-club-real-betis-launches-football-academy-in-gambia\"},\"wordCount\":482,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/spanish-club-real-betis-launches-football-academy-in-gambia#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/11\/sm_1763734366.683562.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/spanish-club-real-betis-launches-football-academy-in-gambia#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/spanish-club-real-betis-launches-football-academy-in-gambia\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/spanish-club-real-betis-launches-football-academy-in-gambia\",\"name\":\"Spanish Club Real Betis Launches Football Academy in Gambia - 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