The Manchester City Football Academy Campus Project in Durrës was presented today, a work of the Italian architect Marco Casamonti, which is launched as part of Manchester City’ ongoing expansion, alongside the club’s eight football schools that will be present globally.

The academy will use Manchester City’s training methodology to provide world-class football education, becoming a golden opportunity for talented children and young people as well as professional footballers to train and develop.

Furthermore, starting today, admirers of Guardiola’s art of football will have the opportunity to see up close the trophies won by Manchester City during the 2022-2023 football season (which came to the Durrës Amphitheater as part of the Academy’s program of Mancity Football in Durrës), – exhibited in the premises of the Center for Openness and Dialogue (COD) in the Prime Minister.

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Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you very much for your presence here at this important moment, which is another stop on a journey that started some time ago, when I personally met the CEO of Manchester City. One of the most brilliant people I have had the privilege to know, Khaldoon Al Mubarak whom I asked to consider the possibility of opening a Manchester City academy in Albania and then, together with Ani, we went to Manchester to specify this idea and turn into a project.

I want to thank in absentia, Khaldoon, who is now a good friend, for the support and consideration with which he treated this request of ours, while one can only imagine how many requests Manchester City has to manage. I am very glad that we managed, not only to secure a contract to build this academy here, but also to have the exclusivity for the entire Western Balkans region, a condition of contract specifying that in case another Manchester City station is opened in the future, the municipality of Durrës will be a partner as well.

I want to thank Ani sincerely, for the dedication and persistence with which he supported this project, whose complexity cannot be navigated by one single entity only.

I want to thank Elira for all the difficult leadership in the legal aspect because at the end of the day, good intentions and good wishes must be translated into stable legal agreements which we now have with the City Group and I want to thank the president who has been acing the navigation of this process, because he is unconditionally benevolent when it comes to football, but also ready to support the project with all that the Federation can do and of course, the main thing at this point is for the Federation to promote this project and help all the football clubs in Albania, but also with the football clubs in the region to turn their eyes and knock on the door of this academy where, in fact, we want to gather the top young talent in the most popular sport in the world.

I want to repeat what the president stated, that an inspiring impetus for this project has been Pablo Zabaleta, who is an agent of Manchester City within the structure of the Albanian Football Federation and I am convinced that he conveys each secret of our Federation with integrity, because, as Pablo has shown me, Manchester City is a community, a community of people who, even when they hang their football boots, remain part of that community and Pablo has been inspiring in terms of the great importance he has had for this project, not just regarding the play, but also for the sports culture, for the community feeling and definitely also for the model and standards he brings that will be a very positive impetus for others who are engaged in the field of Albanian football.

What is the cherry on top, and here at least the president will understand what I say, is that we got Marco Casamonti’s project for free. This is the climax and Marco very happily, in fact, at least that’s how he sounded on the phone, he said “Regalo? Okay, Regalo”, and getting a gift from Marco is not easy, believe me!

Jokes apart, which in this case are much more than half the truth, Marco is an added value because it gives us the opportunity to have a campus of an architectural and functional excellence proven not only in our national stadium, which is now clear for all to be one of the most beautiful stadiums in Europe, despite its small capacity, but with the Fiorentina campus built by Marco’s project, which is the first, really the first, serious campus of this new century in the aspect of parameters, standards, quality in Italy. Italy has a very big football scene, but even bigger than football is the bureaucracy and that is why the stadiums and the sport campuses are in the state they are. It is important that we have here a campus of excellence in all aspects.

With the same ambition that we did the stadium, together with the Federation and thanks to the partnership with an entrepreneur who really showed extraordinary skills in the technical aspect, let’s do this campus and do all the other projects that follow.

We are currently engaged in three stadium projects; Durrës stadium, Korça stadium, Vlora stadium which are in the process of being designed by the architects who won the competitions and will be three more added values in the chain of stadiums we are building, side by side with the Football Federation and in this case even the municipalities of these cities and in the meantime, these projects are not related to football only, but also to the increase of spaces for the youth, for children, to play sports, and to further strengthen Albania’s image as a country where international excellence grows.

We have entered into discussions to bring Rafa Nadal’s academy next to the Manchester City academy, a tennis academy which I hope and believe will be attached to the Manchester City campus, but with an added energy and with a complementary function as a sports destination, with the university next to it.

Thus this whole area will turn from a former swamp into a very attractive area in many aspects and I very much hope that as we succeeded with Ani, we will succeed with Manchester City and with Nadal’s academy to bring him to Durrës and to continue with other projects and other ideas that until yesterday for the sake of truth seemed completely unimaginable and that today are increasingly possible because Albania is no longer what it was, a place that when you heard it, ghosts of fears and insecurities appeared in front of you, but it is a place that when pronounced, immediately attracts attention at all levels, in all areas, from all those who hear it and this is the value added that we managed to create and on which we will continue to build the Albania of 2030.