History of Football
History of Football
Famous Teams and Clubs
Testimony From The Pros
History of Football
Football at La Manga Club started in 1990, with the first official competition-sized football pitch built in order to increase still further the range of sporting facilities available on resort and meet a growing demand from overseas football teams willing to come and train in a warm climate. Over the following years, big teams such as Real Madrid, Ajax and Galatasaray trained at La Manga Club.
The football experience acquired over the years, along with the ideal climate conditions and the excellent facilities on the resort, were the key factors that led the Norwegian Football Federation to choose La Manga Club as the winter training base for the Norwegian League teams. In May 1997, an historical 15-year agreement was signed in Oslo between La Manga Club and the Norwegian Football Federation, under which the Norwegian top league teams would train at La Manga Club from January to mid-April every year. Teams from other Scandinavian countries, such as Sweden, Denmark and Finland, also train here and take part in tournaments.
As a result, the Professional Football Centre was opened in February 1998 with five international-standard football pitches. This was the first year of the La Manga Club Cup, in which 20 premier and first division teams from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland competed in five weekly groups of four teams.
The same year, Glen Hoddle chose La Manga Club as his pre-World Cup training base and brought 30 England players to practise here, attracting massive press interest, especially as his 22-man 1998 World Cup Squad was named during their stay.
Such was the success of the football facilities that in 2000 three more pitches were added to the Centre, bringing it to a total of eight and making it southern Europe's largest training facility. The principal football training season in La Manga Club runs from January to April each year. At this time of year, the climatic conditions in northern European countries make it extremely difficult for clubs to maintain a regular training programme. In this way, La Manga Club is proud to play a part in maintaining and enhancing the quality of European football.
