Sergi Juan combines his time in the academy with his work experience in the IT Department
The Yellows Academy is synonymous with talent. Thousands of young players develop at Miralcamp with the dream of one day making it to the first team. However, only a few are able to achieve this, and there are more and more players in their training stage at Villarreal CF who, thanks to the work of their coaches and tutors, are developing a plan B for the future, known as a dual career. Sergi Juan Boronat (L’ Alcúdia, 2006), U18 midfielder, is one of them. The Valencian footballer, in his second year in the Yellows Academy, combines his life on the pitch with an internship in the IT department of Villarreal CF.
Football is Sergi’s life, but in IT he has found a new passion that he has been able to link with his career as a footballer. “I chose the IT module because it was the one that caught my attention the most. There are many things in computer science, apart from being in front of a computer, and in class I saw that I was good at it, so I entered the module with a great desire to learn,” explains the Valencian midfielder. He adds: “When you do a lot of classes you have to do some work experience, and I decided to choose Villarreal because it’s the club I’m playing for and I loved the idea of helping the club from another perspective.”
In his second month of internship, Sergi says he is adapting to this new stage, and is enjoying these months in the IT department. “I’m enjoying the experience, I’m very comfortable with my colleagues who are teaching me a lot. I’m learning more than I did in school,” he explains with a laugh. In addition, the young Yellows player has a lot of tasks assigned to him, so he has no time to get bored in the office, as Alberto Izquierdo Fortea, the club’s IT specialist, explains: “Sergi is very young and is acquiring a global knowledge of what it means to manage the technology of a first division club. Although he is now making a map of the Estadio de la Cerámica network, we explain to him many things about our day-to-day work. From solving simple incidents to more complex ones such as problems with printers, with the installation of equipment, Wi-Fi incidents, general system crashes, mail management, etc.”
Since March, the day-to-day work of the young Villarreal youth academy player has been carried out at the Submarine’s facilities. In the mornings in the club’s offices, and in the afternoons on the pitch, training with his team. “I get up, come here to the Training Ground and spend the whole morning working in the offices. Then I eat and go to train with the team. The truth is that I’m here all day, but it’s not hard because I’m doing what I like,” explains the Alcudia native.
For many, leading such a rhythm of life may seem complicated, but Sergi is responsible, and he explains that the key to combine a dual career is good organisation: “If you know how to combine the two things well, there is no problem. In the end, the key is to have your schedule well defined and to know how to organise yourself.”
This is the story of Sergi Juan, the talented Valencian midfielder who is training as a footballer in the Yellows Academy and in the Villarreal offices, combining his two passions, football and IT.
