MADRID, 19 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
LaLiga, Casa Árabe and the Cervantes Institute presented ‘La Cervantina’ on October 11, the football team made up of writers who trained this week at the ESC Center, the reference complex for LaLiga and its clubs in Madrid, which is also It hosts LaLiga Academy Spain, the annual sports academic program for young athletes from around the world.
As reported by LaLiga, part of the team of writers trained there this week under the direction of coaches from LaLiga Grassroots, the entity’s global initiative to promote grassroots football. The group, which included representatives such as Nacho Carretero, Carlos Marañón, Juan Córcoles or Alfonso López at the ESC Center, will face off next Saturday, October 22, in Frankfurt (Germany) against a German team as part of the International Book Fair which is celebrated in that city.
The match will take place after a meeting at the Cervantes Institute headquarters in the German city, as was officially revealed during the ‘Literature and football’ round table at the Madrid headquarters, where the team was officially presented and the that they would be in charge of participating in the match that the DFB Kulturstiftung, the cultural section of the German Federation, organizes in each edition of the Book Fair, and that this year it is up to Spain to play as “guest country of honour”.
The alliance between the three entities involves the development of different joint activities to promote the values of sport and culture, with a special focus this year on Arab culture in the context of the next World Cup in Qatar.
The tripartite collaboration began with the presentation of the framework project ‘Fútbol para la Esperanza’, which encompasses actions such as the forthcoming launch of a Spanish-Arabic football dictionary reissued for the occasion in order to promote the Spanish language and culture in countries of the MENA region (countries of the Middle East and North Africa).
“Sport is not only a tool for social transformation, but also part of our culture. In our country, football has always been one of our best ambassadors, something that we at LaLiga have seen year after year since our internationalization strategy began “, considers Octavi Anoro, international director of LaLiga.
The manager recalls that they currently have “a presence in more than 41 countries, where LaLiga appears associated with the ‘Marca España’ and, under its umbrella, football and culture go hand in hand”. “This aspect of promoting culture at an international level is present in the mission and values of Instituto Cervantes and Casa Árabe, which is why we consider ourselves natural allies,” he adds.
“For Casa Árabe it is an honor to support the promotion of culture, bringing a bit of Spanish culture to an international forum such as the Frankfurt Book Fair. The support for Cervantina is part of the extensive ‘Soccer for the hope’ on the occasion of the World Cup. It is the first time that it has been held in an Arab country and at Casa Árabe we are bringing a part of Arab society to Spain with exhibitions, activities and conferences”, emphasizes Irene Lozano, general director of the institution.
The intersection between culture and football is one of the causes that LaLiga has been promoting throughout the world for years as an ambassador for the ‘Marca España’. In addition, the signing of its agreement with Casa Árabe certifies its commitment to the Middle East and North Africa region, which has been one of the axes of its international expansion, something that has been reinforced with the presentation of the new joint-venture in the region, which shows this commitment to the future.