An official club delegation visited its Israeli partners last week
Villarreal CF’s commercial director, Juan Antón, and the Commercial Department’s technical co-ordinator, David Navarro, have visited Israel. As part of the club’s collaboration with its Israeli partner Villarreal Israel, both executives travelled to meet its academy director, Evi Avrahami and discuss the continuous improvement of this unique academy, the only one that features a top women’s professional football team, Emek Hefer, within the Villarreal Academy ecosystem.
“Our feeling is that this season Villarreal Israel is going to accomplish great things. We have a Spanish coach onsite that is working with Villarreal’s methodology and there is a constant connection between our clubs. The goal is to keep improving, always moving forward, and the Champions League is an outstanding motivation for us,” commented David Navarro on Villarreal Israel’s sporting situation.
Juan Antón commented on the ongoing collaboration: “Mr. Avrahami has allowed us to be present in a market that is very interesting for Villarreal. His commitment to our sport and the values that we share about education and integration are boosting a project that makes us feel very proud because Villarreal Israel is bringing people together through football. We are very happy to contribute.”
The Villarreal delegation also had the chance to visit Khaled Dokhi, general manager of Israeli club Bnei Sakhnin, which is the only Arab club playing in the Israeli top flight. “This is a very interesting visit for us. Mr. Dokhi has been a friend of our club for a long time as his profession besides football is related to ceramics. Sakhnin is the ceramic cluster in this area and it is a small city like Vila-real, we definitely relate to them and their sporting/business situation and wish them all the best,” said Juan Antón.
Mr. Dokhi hosted a football meeting where Villarreal executives got to learn first hand the methodology that Bnei Sakhnin is using in their academy and professional team. With the participation of professionals like Haim Silves (head coach), Ayman Abu Yunus (academy director) and Biram Kiel, team captain and Bnei Sakhnin legends, both institutions got to exchange points of views and set future specific collaboration points for the top professional level.
PHOTO: Shaun Greenfeld
