Atletico Madrid unveil ambitious plans to boost football in Pakistan

The Atlético De Madrid Academia in Pakistan will open in Lahore later this month with a view to raising the profile of the game in the country

Atletico Madrid's international academy manager Fernando Lobete (L) with Lahore Academy's CEO Muhammad Atta Tanseer (Atletico Madrid)

The unveiling of a football academy is invariably looked on as a great initiative, and attracts strong interest. However when the football academy is in partnership with Atletico Madrid and it is in Pakistan, then that sends out a message of something greater.

Atlético will officially open their first football academy in Lahore later this month, the “Atlético De Madrid Academia in Pakistan.”

Talented school children from all over Pakistan will be able to train under the guidance of Spanish coaches. Atlético want to see player progression to Pakistan’s national youth teams in three to five years, and Pakistani players playing for Los Colchoneros in the near future.

Lahore businessmen Muhammad Atta Tanseer and his cousin Omer Sheikh are the passionate football fans behind this landmark initiative. They are committed to raising the level of footballing talent in Pakistan, and the profile of football in their country.

Initial overtures to set up an academy with Atlético’s rivals Real Madrid were made, but despite their best efforts, a deal never materialised.

“We were in talks with Real Madrid in 2015 and were negotiating with them for almost 2 years. It was really hard to get through to them, and they’re a very big elite club. They don’t listen much, they don’t negotiate much, and they don’t offer much as well,” said Sheikh.

He recalls negotiations with Los Blancos’ directors where his delegation were “laughed out of meetings.”

Unwilling to return to Pakistan empty handed, Tanseer and Sheikh switched their focus to Atlético, where a dialogue was eventually established. Tanseer and Sheikh had already set up their company Summatus Sports almost three years earlier where over one hundred children have received training.

After several visits to Lahore - and at their own expense, Atlético were impressed.

They surveyed and evaluated everything including locations, facilities, talent and demographics to conclude that the deal was a goer. Summatus Sports will become the parent company, with everything else branded in the Atlético name.

The thought of working with a country that has revolutionised the game was the driving force to seeing this through, and was a strong driver in clinching the deal explained Tanseer, who also revealed further ambitious projects for football in Pakistan.

“We are merely starting to scratch the surface of infinite talent that remains to be discovered and cultivated into world class competencies. We are opening the first academy in Lahore and also planning to open in Islamabad and Karachi. We will be holding training camps, clinics and training sessions in other major cities and towns of Pakistan as well,” he said.

Atletico Madrid aim for trainees to reach Pakistan youth level and also La Liga (Atletico de Madrid Academia - Pakistan)

Daniel Limones and Javier Visea are two Atlético coaches who have been living in Lahore’s affluent Gulberg suburb since September. They’re busy training newly recruited Pakistani coaches, talent scouting in local schools and coaching. The duo have settled well into their new environs.

“No professional team from Europe has started this project in Pakistan. We are the first, and it’s a great opportunity. I think that we have an opportunity to do a lot of things here. Pakistan is a big country with a lot of people, more than 200 million. So in Atlético de Madrid, we thought that it could be a really good opportunity for us. We can find a lot of potential here and a lot of good players,” predicted Limones.

The Atlético deal could be the vanguard to more La Liga involvement in south Asia.

At the 2018 Leaders event in London last October, one of the leading sessions attended was entitled “La Liga and Facebook a Global Football Community.” Officials from both organisations shed light on a three year deal allowing Facebook to show all 380 La Liga matches free of charge from this season to users in India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. That equates to nearly 350 million users in the region.

Jose Antonio Cachaza is La Liga’s country manager in India, and he firmly backs Atlético’s venture into Pakistan.

“Atlético has been quite active getting into the Asian markets, such as China, Singapore, India and now Pakistan, where La Liga has a strong following. This also comes when we are starting to broadcast in Pakistan all La Liga matches live and free through Facebook, with very good fan responses.”

“The clubs are starting to look to the region in search of talent, so hopefully in the near future we’ll have an Indian or Pakistani player starting for one of our clubs. Last year La Liga helped clubs like Real Betis, Eibar, Espanyol with several projects in the region. We also brought Girona for friendly matches in Kerala, last July with huge success.”

La Liga might be the catalyst to finally kick start football into the higher levels in south Asia, with Atlético leading the way from Pakistan.