Shayne Fairman, STAR Writer

JAMAICAN children aged five to 17 will be given the chance to play football ‘the Barca Way,’ when FCBEscola coaches from worldrenowned football club FC Barcelona deliver a week-long FCBEscola summer camp, at the American International School of Kingston (AISK), starting today.

This historic training camp is expecting to host around 320 boys and girls until Friday.

Previous FCBEscola camps have trained more than 30,000 young athletes in over 120 camps world-wide.

Director of training for the camp, Oscar Cespedes, noted that the young participants will be exposed to the principles of La Masia.

It is a world-renowned youth academy in Barcelona which helped to advance, develop and train international football heavyweights: Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, and Cesc Fabregas, among others.

“We are going to have the kids working with the same Barcelona methodology that we have in La Masia,” Cespedes told STAR Sports in a telephone interview, adding:

“We will divide the camp in three sections – practical, technical and FCB Escola values.”

Besides training and methodology, the youngsters will be introduced to the FCBEscola values of respect, humility, ambition, effort and teamwork.

Day camp will run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m, each day, costing $64,350. The afternoon camp is scheduled for 2:30-6 p.m., and will cost $40,950 for boys and girls, 5-17.

Besides the training expertise, an official FC Barcelona package with kit, Nike football, hydration and nutrition items will be given to participants.

A total of three FC Barcelona licensed coaches will be in the island, including Oscar Cespedes, Marcial Serrano and Pau Pripiana, who all boast UEFA and other international coaching certifications.