Warsaw, Poland, Sept 8: Barcelona has opened a football school in Poland to help develop talented young players from the country.
Program director Xevi Marce and former defender Julio Alberto Moreno announced the opening of the Warsaw school at a news conference on Thursday, in the presence of around a dozen recruited boys, who were wearing the club's colors.
It is Barcelona's first such school in Europe.
Some 1,000 children aged between six and 12 are to train at four sites in the capital. The best ones will have a chance to continue in Spain, where the sport is at much higher level than in Poland.
Barcelona has similar schools in Japan, Dubai, Egypt, Hong Kong and Peru.
Poland and Ukraine will co-host the 2012 European Championship. AP
