Barcelona's plans to conquer the United States
The club will take advantage of their tour of the US
The Barca Academy is starting among other marketing strategies
Barcelona will visit three different cities (New York, Washington and Miami) over 10 days in the USA. The excuse is that they are going on tour, to face Man United, Juventus and Real Madrid.
But beyond the work of Ernesto Valverde and his team, the club will advance and reinforce their sporting, commercial and charitable expansions. It's the seventh time that Barcelona are doing part of pre-season in the US, but since the first - in 1937 - the objectives have changed and are very different. That was a survival trip, crucial to stop the club disappearing. Now things are very different.
Jordi Cardoner, vice-president of the social area, will be with the Blaugrana during the 10 days, while president Josep Maria Bartomeu will be in New York and Miami. Along with Cardoner are vice-presidents Jordi Mestre and Manel Arroyo, as well as directorsJordi Moix, Javier Bordas, Silvio Elias, Josep Ramon Vidal-Abarca, Enric Tombas and Oriol Tomàs.
There will also be three big names for sporting ambassadors - Juliano Belletti, Thierry Henry and Rafa Marquez, who will participate in various promotional acts during the tour. The Mexican will be one of the most well-known faces at the presentation of the Barca Academy on Long Island, one of the key acts of the tour.
The USA is the first country where Barcelona are opening their centres, and as well as Long Island another will be opened in Arizona. They are schools aimed at children between 6 and 19 years old who want to become professionals, or get a sporting bursary at a university, a successful model which promotes education as a step on the way to elite sport in the US. The tests to choose the athletes who make it into the Barca academy on Long Island will feature 1,500 players and a waitlist of 600 more.
The FC Barcelona foundation will sign deals with the departments of education in New York and Washington to put the programme FutbolNet in action in these cities. There will also be a gala at the Rockerfeller Centre in New York. Barcelona's Innovation Hub will also be presented at MIT and Georgetown University.
A giant human mosaic of Barcelona's shirt, a coach with the club colours, fan zones at each game the first team are at and other gifts to Cules will also help the club expand their brand during their USA tour.
