On the 50th floor of the glass building, one of the four imposing towers in Madrid, KPMG acted as host to the Higher Sports Council and the Royal Spanish Rugby Federation to present this Monday the #SpainFirstFellowship, “a program that will help players to undertake and achieve training opportunities, connection with the labor market and personal development, while they pursue and achieve excellence in professional rugby, thus facilitating professional reinvention once their sporting career ends.” Because, as the president of the RFER, Juan Carlos Martín ‘Hansen’, warned, “we do not want broken toys in rugby , not even in sport.”
A copious ‘join venture’
At the lectern, along with ‘Hansen’, the event was presented by Juanjo Cano, president of KPMG in Spain and a man close to the oval sport, and the Federation director who will be responsible for the program, Margarita Ortiz. In the front row, the partners and traveling companions on this adventure, who will provide are knowhow (in Spanish, his experience), their products and services to this kind of copious ‘join venture’ in which LHH Spain, LinkedIn Spain and Portugal, Fundación máshumano, Ágora News, Elearning Alumne, the University of Comillas, 8Belts and Microsoft-Founderz also participate, whose head of operations is an old acquaintance of the Division of Honor rugby, Rubén Iturrarte.
Family photo of the #SpainFirstFellowship partners. / WALTER DEGIROLMO/RFER
And to top it off, José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, Secretary of State for Sports, presided over the event, the closest thing to a ‘minister’ of sports in our Government, who took the floor to close the event. Juanjo Cano started the presentation by emphasizing the commitment to “talent and sports”, while announcing the sponsorship of the Under-23 league, which will be renamed KMPG Emerging. The director of the firm recalled that ““The sum of the parts always has more value than the individualities.” Something that, on the other hand, rugby people know well. With this, he thanked all the collaborating brands for their support.
Words that gave way to a brief intervention by the president of Spanish rugby, Juan Carlos Martinwho stressed that “here we begin a strategic commitment that will allow us to be relevant. We want to put the focus on the entire path, from the training of the child who begins to the care of the international who plays with the national team. We must think big and that is why We have opted to bring the World Series to Madrid, that is why we want to be in Australia 2027 with the XV and we have also asked for the 2035 World Cup. But All that strategy is worthless if it is not worth it for the player to take that path. And we are here to make it that way.”
‘Hansen’ insisted “on the differential value of being accompanied by these companies that are so proven in their professional fields. Special thanks to KPMG and the Government of Spain for starting with us this path that begins with a pilot that has already been launched in the women’s team of 7. But we have 12 teams in which we are looking forward to implementing it to help our athletes.”
A matter of justice with the athlete
He then took the floor Margarita Ortiz, responsible for the program at the RFEF, who claimed the launch of #SpainFirstFellowship as ““a matter of justice, because they give their all for our country and it is time to return that effort to the athletes.”. This public-private collaboration initiative, according to Ortiz, “will try to maintain and retain the talent of our athletes in Spain and to do so it has developed a program in which the player will first undergo a 360 degree evaluation, and then develop them in various areas such as training advice, financial and legal education, language training, skills and well-being, digital skills, professional advice and practices and social actions.
Margarita also explained that this process “It will be accompanied by a mentoring program for athletes with professionals and businessmen outside of sports. This will encourage their professional and personal development with monthly sessions in which their objectives within the program will be worked on.”
Margarita Ortiz, Juanjo Cano and Juan Carlos Martín ‘Hansen’. / WALTER DEGIROLMO/RFER
Subsequently, the representatives of the companies that will provide their services began to parade around the lectern, such as the vice-rector for Research and Teaching Staff of the University of Comillas, Mario Ventosa, who pointed out that “we join this initiative to help make society fairer to these high-level athletes who make us have such a good time.” Anxo Pérez, CEO of 8belts, addressed the thirty rugby players present, reminding them that “success is democratic. “Don’t admire the success, admire the effort.”and then added that “we all have the seed of success, but it must be watered.”
“Example for other federations”
Finally, the Secretary of State for Sports, José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, took the floor and began by warning: “You are pioneers in this way of working. I hope other federations take an example from you and follow this path.”. Uribes continued by reminding that “sport is an industry and in Spain we have shown that we know how to work it. But the challenge we have pending is to recognize the athlete and protect him, and this pioneering initiative goes on that path. In our ‘Team Spain’ program, the The Government has dedicated 50 million to comprehensive support for athletes. From conciliation aid for athletes who are mothers, to finding high-level sparring partners for athletes like Carolina Marín. And we have allocated just over two million to rugby. I think that with projects like This is how we set an example for the rest of the federations of where we should go.”
The speech of the ‘minister’ of sports closed this high-flying presentation, with Madrid at its feet, in which the focus was on the faces of some young athletes who denoted the excitement of knowing that The game no longer ends after the last tackle.
2024-02-26 19:32:56
#Hansen #dont #broken #toys #rugby
