Villarreal CF promotes the growth of girls’ football through the training and personal development of promising young players such as Ana and Aitana
Ana Flor and Aitana Velasco are at the starting point of a growing section at Villarreal CF. The two little girls, just 7 years old, enjoy the beautiful game every week as part of the Yellows’ Prebenjamín E team.
“I started playing when I was four years old and I have a lot of fun,” said a very excited Ana Flor. To which Aitana Velasco adds with a smile: “I’ve loved coming to play since I was a little girl.” In fact, both started coming to training with the club in the 2021/22 season in the psychomotor skills programme, which is the precursor to entry into the school’s youth academy.
Enrolled in a mixed team -a fairly common situation in youth teams-, the girls, from Vila-real and Moncofa, are developing as footballers as well as people. “At this age we focus on general tasks. We focus on aspects of the game that we consider to be fundamental, such as controlling the ball, passing or looking for openings. But we also focus on aspects of the player as a person, because we think it’s important that they also know how to identify their emotions and those of their teammates, so that they know how to manage them,” explains one of their coaches, Jesús Martí.
His colleague Maxi García points out: “We see that both players are very integrated in the group and they have a lot of fun in training. They are part of the group and, in fact, I encourage many more girls to join. Girls’ football is booming and can go even further, and I believe that football is a tool for education.”
A pioneering club in the province of Castellón
Villarreal CF has established itself as a pioneering club in women’s football in the province of Castellón, promoting the sport among girls from a very early age. In fact, in the 2022/23 campaign, the girls’ section launched, for the first time, a Benjamín team made up exclusively of girls aged eight and nine.
Since then, the Yellows Academy has had a total of six female teams: Benjamín (U10s), Alevín (12s), Infantil (14s), Femenino D (U16s), Femenino C (U19s) and Femenino B. To which we must add a professional team, which played for three seasons in the top flight of national women’s football (from 2021/22 to 2023/24) and which currently competes in the Primera Federación (second division).
Undoubtedly, a structure in continuous growth with more than 100 girls who, like Ana and Aitana, are the present as well as dreaming of being the future of Villarreal.
