Hola hola, Barcelona!
Tomorrow we're hosting Miquel Puig as our third guest in Startup Grind Barcelona. Miquel has been a founding member of the FCB Escola during his times as a coach in the best soccer team in the world. He's now creating football academies in many different countries such as Qatar, Sweden or the USA.
How did we get to know him? Keep reading.
The offices
Through a common friend of our co-director Alex González, I was invited to visit him at the Barcelona Soccer Academy offices in Barcelona.
I sped through Barcelona using Bicing, my most loyal ally since it started operating, and visited the beautiful neighbourhood of Sant Gervasi. There, in the heart of one of Barcelona's most well-kept secrets, lay the offices of Barcelona Soccer Academy.
After ringing the doorbell, Miquel welcomed me from afar and told me to walk in the labyrinth and meet him in the offices after the patio. Well, that was sort of labyrinth-ish, indeed!
The man
Miquel warmly welcomed me into their offices and we suddenly started discussing football. Not only is football a good ice-breaker, but it's also something we're both passionate about. We connected from the first moment.
We spoke for almost an hour about his career in FC Barcelona, his new endeavours with Barcelona Soccer Academy and his worldwide business trying to export the Barcelona brand to countries whose main sport is not football. Soccer, for the Americans :)
And, obviously, we went back to soccer: Barcelona, the World Cup, Messi, and other main topics. I'm sure we will cover some of them tomorrow.
Startup Grind Barcelona is holding an event covering entrepreneurship in sport. We will count on some start-ups leading the sports community in Barcelona such as YesWePlay and GymForLess.
The test
After an hour learning - a lot - about Miquel and his career, he made sure I didn't leave without passing The Test, as he calls it.
I had to face this wall covered in drawings of famous footballers and try to guess them all:
Some of them were really difficult, but I think I did great. I must have scored an 80% or so, which is not bad, considering I haven't seen play 90% of them. Zico, Socrates, Messi, Maldini and other ex-football stars are among all of them.
I'm not entirely proud of my score there. I could have done better. Now, let's see if he passes the Startup Grind test tomorrow :)
See you all tomorrow at 18.30 at Mobile World Centre (C/Fontanella, 2).
Keep Grinding!