What studies does a first division soccer coach have to have? The Vocational Training system includes the specialty of soccer sports technician, which qualifies to teach soccer, following the objectives, content, resources and evaluation methods. Then, with that title, one can end up teaching in sports clubs and associations, but also in schools.
But there is more. Non-regulated training that broadens perspectives, provides experience and gives more opportunities. For example, at the Business School of the Professional Football League they offer master’s degrees in sports marketing. And in this context, Construyendo Fútbol was born, the project of two young people who from Lanzadera, the accelerator promoted by Juan Roig, are growing their commitment to Netflix-style football training: with their own online platform.
“We do training courses and content, aimed at the soccer coaching staff: soccer coaches, mainly. And we dedicate ourselves to content based on real experiences, capturing people who are in the elite”, explains Ángel Encinar, co-founder of Construyendo Fútbol. Thus, the profile Marcos Merino, former technical secretary of Villarreal CF, hangs on the platform’s website; Vicent Benlloch, goalkeeping coach at Villarreal C.F.; Enric Soriano, former Levante UD B coach; Juan Miguel Bernat, Levante UD psychologist; Mar Moreno, physical trainer at Levante UD; Pablo Trenado, analyst at Levante UD; Natalia García, coach at Valencia C.F. or Maria Pry, former coach at Levante UD, but there are many more.
Graduated in ADE, it is no coincidence that Encinar was interested in the beautiful game: he is a former professional player and spent his dribbling for AC Milan, but also for Atlético de Madrid. Until at the age of 23 he left him, tired of the five surgeries he underwent, with several injuries to his credit. He then he took the backpack, left the ball at home and returned to the classroom.
He was on that journey when the success of some university conferences on training in values ??in the world of football that he himself organized turned on the light bulb to turn it into a business. “While I was at Atleti, I met who is now my partner, Iván Díaz, who trained me in lower categories. I called him for that day and we had 3,000 registered. So I thought there was a niche”, says the entrepreneur.
He says that he thought of giving facilities to those professionals who want to continue learning in the world of football, but at a lower cost. “To be a coach you have to have a degree, but then there were no more complementary studies, and to train you had to resort to non-regulated training, that’s why we thought of creating an offer to be complementary at low cost”, admits Encinar.
Of the total of 130 professionals who participate in this audiovisual platform, 90% are active. They are the ones who teach short courses, “but they are very useful, they contribute a lot”, explains the businessman. They use a 100% online and audiovisual methodology that contains 150 classes, 300 hours of content and interviews and 300 exercises with monthly renewal and can be followed from anywhere in the world: they already have users in more than 25 different countries.
They are currently closing an investment round to be the largest training platform in the world of football, since their goal in the next two years is to expand in the Spanish-speaking world and train 35,000 people. At the moment, having entered Lanzadera, they feel that they have had great growth: in 10 months they have invoiced 50,000 euros and have obtained up to 160,000 euros in investment rounds since May 2022.
