Ballaz Academy’s Under-12 team will depart the island on Friday for Benidorm, Spain, where they will take part in one of Europe’s top youth football tournaments in what directors hope will continue to challenge the group and aid their technical and personal development.

The group, one of the academy’s most successful, has won every overseas competition it has entered over the years, including the Springs Holiday Cup in Florida. Ballaz also became the first and only team from Jamaica to win a title in the Gold ‘A’ category at the Target USA Cup in Minnesota last year.

However, Andre Virtue, director and founder of Ballaz Academy, is welcoming what he expects will be a greater challenge for the boys at the Costa Blanca Cup in Benidorm, on the outskirts of Valencia, where they will come up against teams from all around the world.

“Exposing the boys as early as possible is very important to us. This group of boys has been together for quite a while and they have shown a number of different characteristics and qualities, and we have taken them in other tournaments to challenge them, and this provides a great opportunity to carry them into a European environment,” Virtue told the Jamaica Observer.

“We went there before in 2022, with our Under-15 boys, the same set of boys who came back and won our KSAFA Under-17 tournament, so, to us, it’s an investment in what they need to expose them to another type of football and what’s happening around the world. These boys are hungry for it, and I think it does provide, not just the coaching staff, but the players, a space in which we can see what is happening in terms of how the ball is being played…it’s not just about the technical, it’s the tactical, and the only way that we can challenge our players is to put them in that kind of environment that they’re going to be tested and challenged.

Now in its 31st year, Costa Blanca Cup 2025 will feature 305 teams from 30 countries and will run from July 6-12.

Virtue says that in addition to providing a tough challenge to young Jamaican footballers, the experience will also provide invaluable experience to the coaches and technical personnel who will be making the trip.

“For an organisation to grow, it can’t be just a few. Coach Michael Blygen, over the years, has been with these boys, so there’s a relationship there. Coach Mikey also went to Minnesota last year and we played against a quality opposition, and since then, even our interaction with him as a coach in terms of what he needs to do to see the game in different moments has changed.”

Coach Blygen and the Ballaz team will be supported by personnel from TNGS Academy, which is based in Spain. They will provide technical and analytical support for the team, while also aiding in the recovery and nutrition programmes.

In addition to the tournament schedule, the team will also have practice matches before and after the competition, and will conducts tours to the TNGS and Valencia facilities as well as to a sports science institute where several tests will be conducted.

“Culturally, in terms of what we’ve seen in Spanish football over the years and in terms of how they are technically, but also in terms of how they are in terms of their game intelligence, their football IQ, a lot of those things we can watch it, we can read about it, but to immerse yourself into that culture and that environment can only auger well for us and for these players,” Virtue shared.

“Taking them into that environment is only going to help them to be thinking about what they need to be doing. So before getting a ball, what are they doing in terms of the mental side of the game? How are they preparing themselves confidently to go into a training session, to go into a game, and for us that is important. Above all, it is building relationships. Obviously, being in Spain in a different culture, food, environment is only going to help our boys as well. Jamaica is doing the best that we can, but this is not enough, and we have to put them into spaces where they are going to make mistakes, we have to put them in spaces where they’re going to have to deal with conflict in order to become solution-oriented as players, and we think [this] is a good crop of boys who are resilient, but we need to put them in another space.”

Ballaz have been drawn in Group 1 alongside OV Toros FC from California as well as Spanish teams Academia Gaya and FPI Academy.