At 12.00 last Thursday, the main studio of the Cadena SER radio in Madrid was the venue for the official presentation of the 25th National PAMESA La Liga Promises Tournament, to be held this year in Villarreal for the second year running.
President of the League, Javier Tebas; executive officer of Villarreal CF, Fernando Roig Negueroles; president of the El Larguero Foundation, José Ramón de la Morena, and head of sports at the Cadena Ser, Laura Martínez, presented the prestigious competition that every year brings together the great promises of Spanish football. This year the event will take place from 3 to 5 June at the Pamesa Cerámica Training Ground.
To mark the twenty-fifth tournament, for the first time there will be an ALL STARS match played at 20.00 on the day before the official opening. The two teams will be made up of one representative from each club taking part in the tournament. Each team will be captained by two LaLiga legends: LaLiga country manager in the United States, Raúl González together with the ambassador of the BBVA League Fernando Morientes on one side, and BBVA League ambassadors Carles Puyol and Marcos Senna on the other.
At the official presentation Tebas thanked those who, year after year, work extremely hard to stage the tournament, which he described as “very important” for LaLiga. “This tournament has become a classic. Every year the professional football season closes with this tournament and for us it is very special and very important”, he said.
Fernando Roig Negueroles explained that the new Pamesa Training Ground had been up and running for “five or six months. The players will have two 8-a-side pitches with every imaginable facility and we are going to install stands for the main pitch so everything will be absolutely perfect”, he said.
In turn, José Ramón de la Morena highlighted the importance of the competition for bringing on young players: “It is football in its purest state. At these ages, the purist form of football I’ve seen is in this tournament. That’s why we are so committed to them and to putting this event on, despite the enormous effort involved in organising it”, he pointed out.
This year junior players from the first division teams will take part (with the exception of Athletic, replaced by Alavés) in a competition that is now considered an authentic classic in national junior football. Entry to all the competition matches is completely free.