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Sports Reporter
TWO coaches from the FC Barcelona Football School – Daniel Bigas Alsina and Isaac Oriol Guerero Hernandez – are expected in Harare on Monday for a high-profile two-day coaching clinic in which they will bring the glamour of tiki-taka to town. The two coaches will conduct their coaching clinic, which has been made possible by the partnership between the Spanish giants and Castle Lager, at the National Sports Stadium and the majority of the country’s Premiership coaches are expected to take part.

Alsina and Hernandez are expected to touch down at Harare International Airport aboard a private jet, provided by the sponsors, and will also conduct a similar coaching clinic in Tanzania.

The organisers of the trip said the scheduled arrival of the two coaches represents a milestone in Zimbabwean football.
“Castle Lager, the continent’s leading lager and FC Barcelona, one of the top teams on the global soccer stage, have partnered to bring the FC Barcelona tiki-taka experience to local soccer players,” the organisers said in a statement yesterday. The National Sports Stadium in Harare will be a hive of activity for the next two days while coaches Daniel Bigas Alsina and Isaac Oriol Guerrero Hernandez from FC Barcelona’s Football School host a two-day clinic.

“The clinics are part of the benefits of a partnership that was signed between FC Barcelona and Castle Lager last year, making Castle Lager the official lager for FC Barcelona on the continent.

“The coaching clinics represent the community involvement benefits of the deal. During these clinics, 36 coaches, and players from the local Castle Premier Soccer League and the national teams will have the opportunity to get coached and gain skills from coaches that have helped shape the careers of some of the most successful soccer players in the world.

The coaching clinics will involve both on and off-pitch training programmes, which will be both theory and practical exercises.
“As part of the clinic, the coaches will share some of the secrets to FC Barcelona’s success and help bring quality international soccer expertise to African communities.”

Delta Corporation, who are the parent company that holds the Castle Lager franchise in Zimbabwe, said this was a landmark development for football in this country.

“We are very excited about this coaching clinics initiative and are happy about this opportunity to give back to the communities that support our brand in a way that will benefit soccer players for a long time to come,” Maxen Karombo, Delta Corporation Marketing Director, said in a statement.

“Castle Lager has a long history with soccer on the continent and this event cements the association between the number one sport and number one lager on the continent.”

Premier Soccer League chief executive Kenny Ndebele last week urged all the league’s coaches to attend the coaching clinics.
“We are very excited and especially grateful to our sponsor for bringing high-level technical coaches from Barcelona,” said Ndebele.

“We would like to urge our coaches to attend and since it is coming after the Caf-A Licence, it adds on to knowledge they are acquiring.
“It is our desire as a league to see this relationship grow and, hopefully, one day we will have some of our coaches going to Spain for some training in coaching.
“We are looking forward to 100 percent attendance and the days set for the course are convenient and doesn’t disrupt the training programmes for the teams,” said Ndebele.

Castle Lager penned a three-year partnership which made it the official African beer of FC Barcelona in Zimbabwe and 10 other countries on the continent.
Hernandez, who is a holder of a UEFA Pro Licence among other several sports degrees and qualifications, has worked with the club in different professional youth teams from 1994 up to 2010 and, since then, has been the head co-ordinator of the Barcelona Football School.

Alsina, who is 37, has featured for the club’s junior teams and lower division sides as a player and once played with players such as Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernandez, two of the best products of La Masia, Barca’s famed academy, which also produced the likes of Gerard Pique, Thiago Motta, Cesc Fabregas, Mikel Arteta, Pedro, Sergio Busquets, Pep Guardiola, Andres Iniesta and, of course, the great Lionel Messi.

He has worked with other coaches such as Albert Roca, who was Barcelona’s physical trainer, Dutchman Frank Rijkaard, who spent five years as coach of the Catalan giants from 2003-2008 and Joan Vilà, a methodology director at the club. On Monday, their programme will start with the two coaches preaching the gospel of the game’s philosophy, physical training and then have some practice sessions.

The following day, the Spaniards will take coaches through a tactical development plan in the conference room before having a practice session later.