A FLAVOUR of sunny Spain is coming to Bracknell Town Football Club, writes Dave Wright.

They have forged a partnership with Global Premier Soccer, one of the largest youth organisations in the world, whose aim is to provide pathways for players to progress from grassroots level right up to the international stage.

GPS have technical partnerships with European giants Valencia and Bayern Munich, and last week the Spaniards opened their doors to the Robins.

And chairman Kayne Steinborn-Busse has revealed the Valencia logo will be on the sleeves of every Bracknell players shirt next season, from the reserves down to the youngest youth teams. The first team are only permitted to wear the logo of their league sponsor.

Steinborn-Busse and his club's head of first-team football, Mark Tallentire, led a group of coaches and junior managers to the south-eastern port of Valencia

"It proved a very beneficial trip, we learned a lot," said Tallentire, whose club are opening their own Academy at Larges Lane this summer with a number of Americans being among their first year's students.

"As we are starting from the ground up, we are trying to take on as many ideas we can, as we want to get it right first time," he added.

"It was through GPS we got the chance to go out to Valencia FC and spend a few days with them. They held nothing back, allowing us through every door to their extensive training programme.

"It was a fantastic experience. You can't replicate that of a full-time La Liga football club, but you can certainly take parts of their DNA and put into ours. That was the purpose of it.

"We had to come back on Thursday night, so we missed the opportunity on Friday to go onto the pitches to coach some of their younger players, but next time we go out there we will stay a bit longer and take advantage of that.

"Valencia CF are scheduled here in the summer to hold a coaching development workshop for the wider youth coaching team."