Real Madrid to set up football school in Manila

MANILA, Philippines – The Spanish football club Real Madrid is setting up a football school in Manila, the Spanish cultural center Instituto Cervantes de Manila said.

Fundacion Real Madrid and Fundacion Mapfre of Spain signed an international cooperation agreement for the establishment of the school for poor and disadvantaged children for school year 2011-2012 in four former colonies that include Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and the Philippines.

According to the Instituto statement, the agreement was signed in Madrid by José Manuel Martínez and Florentino Pérez, chairs of Fundacion Mapfre and the Real Madrid Foundation, respectively.

“The purpose of these schools is to ensure young people living in situations of social vulnerability have access to basic nourishment, private healthcare and programs for better education. They will also have the chance to receive sports training – football in this case – as a way to promote healthy lifestyles, ensuring their schooling, helping them to find decent employment in the future and rescuing them from the circle of exclusion and poverty in which they now subsist,” it said.

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