Bengaluru: Spanish football club Sevilla FC and FC Bengaluru United on Wednesday announced big plans for Indian market including the technological innovation and development projects apart from increasing Sevilla FC’s footprint in India.
The delegates, including Jose Castro Carmona (President, Sevilla FC), Jose Maria Cruz (CEO), Jorge Paradela (Business General Manager) and Elias Zamora (Chief Data Officer) arrived in Bengaluru on Tuesday for a 5-day visit.
The Spanish football club, which has won the prestigious UEFA Europa League six times, announced a five-year collaboration with FC Bengaluru United in early 2021 — an endeavour that will see the two clubs focus on technological innovation, and development projects apart from increasing Sevilla FC’s footprint in India.
Expressing his team’s excitement about being here in Bengaluru, Sevilla FC President Carmona said, “It is a great pleasure to be here to be in Bengaluru. We know perfectly, the huge amount of enthusiasm for our visit and the tremendous cooperation between FC Bengaluru United and Sevilla FC. We share many common values and one of them is the willingness to grow.”
“Sevilla FC is the second-oldest team in Spain (1890); we have won the largest number of trophies in the last two decades and we have the right momentum to grow. As part of our international strategy for the future, India is paramount; it is the first destination to expand our brand internationally. We chose Bengaluru as it is one of the most important centres for technology in the world,” he added.
On June 11, the club will be launching the Sevilla FC Junior Cup, which will be focused on growing and developing the youth footballing talent in the city of Bengaluru. The inaugural edition will feature teams across five age categories (U- 8s, U- 10s, U-12s, U-14s, U-18s) plus a women’s team (open age category) battling for top honours.
Speaking on Sevilla FC’s visit to the city, FC Bengaluru United owner Gaurav Manchanda said, “This is a momentous occasion for us at FC Bengaluru United to host Sevilla FC on their maiden trip to Bengaluru. We formalised our five-year-long partnership in early 2021 and since then, we have had several successes including being awarded the Best Internationalisation Strategy at the prestigious World Football Summit (WFS) Awards. This is the largest delegation of a leadership group from a top-performing European club to visit India. We have lined up exciting events during their stay and we wanted to reciprocate the wonderful hospitality Sevilla FC extended when we were in Seville earlier this year.”
(IANS)
