HAVANA, Nov. 14 -- Celebrated Spanish football club Real Madrid on Monday opened a training camp in Havana for Cuban children.
Some 100 boys and girls selected from eight schools in Havana attended the first day of training as part of a program designed to teach values through football.
The five-day football clinic, at the Eduardo Saborit sports complex in the city's Playa district, will focus on a different aspect of the game each day, including leadership, teamwork and respect for others, according to Joaquin Sagues, director of the club's Campus Experience program.
Retired striker Emilio Butragueno was expected to arrive in Cuba on Tuesday. As the club's director of institutional relations, he will be leading some training sessions and meeting with the president of the Cuban Sports Institute (Inder), Antonio Becali.
Sagues said the team plans to expand the program, carried out in more than 40 countries since 2010, to Cuba's other provinces.
