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After the announcement of the next friendly matches of FC Barcelona in the USA, we have sat Bruno Díaz, Director of ISL’s Tours & Friendlies department, in the hot seat to find out more:
1. First of all, tell us about your work as Director of ISL’s Tours & Friendlies department.
It’s very exciting to help the clubs organize their preseasons.
We work with European, American, and Latam clubs to find each region’s best potential-friendly games.
It’s an essential time of the year for the sport and commercial departments of the clubs.
2. What are the objectives of friendlies?
Friendly games are crucial from a sports and commercial point of view.
During this time, the teams prepare themselves for the next season.
Playing against teams from different countries is always interesting.
From a commercial POV, clubs use these international tours to create brand awareness and gain more fans worldwide.
3. We recently announced a friendly match. Do you think there will be more news this season?
After two difficult years of COVID restrictions, we will finally see a lot of international games in the US and Europe for our clients.
It will be a busy summer for our team.
4. Are these matches essential for clubs?
They all need to play games to be prepared for the next season, and commercially speaking, it’s always a good source of revenue for the teams and a perfect occasion to win over more fans abroad.
The 4-time MLS winner has trusted ISL to bring international teams to the X edition of the Capital Cup. The Agency has secured the participation of one of the most successful teams in Central America, Club Xelajú, from the Guatemala Liga Nacional. Club Deportivo Águila from El Salvador will complete the tournament daw.
The ISL Tours And Friendlies Department has been working with the 4x MLS Cup Champion DC United to organize the Capital Cup in Washington D.C.
“It has been a pleasure to work again with DC United in the organization of the CAPITAL CUP, achieving the objective of inviting Central American teams to the Tournament.” said ISL’s Tours & Friendliess Director Bruno Diaz.
“The Capital Cup continues to provide an excellent platform to deliver and showcase top-level soccer from around the globe here in the Nation’s Capital at Audi Field. We look forward to delivering yet another highly competitive tournament, as well as a vibrant and memorable experience for D.C. United fans and the larger soccer community located here in the DMV.” said Danita Johnson, D.C. United President of Business Operations.
The games will be this upcoming summer at the Audi Field in Washington, D.C. between June 1st and June 7th in Washington, D.C.
DC United and ISL have matched up to organize the Capital Cup.
Stay tuned for more matches and news of our Tours and Friendlies Department!
ISL and USYF (United States Youth Futsal – a US Soccer member) continue to strengthen their relationship to expand futsal in the United States with a series of events in Kansas City, Milwaukee, Indianapolis and Charlotte during the summer.
It is the first time that USYF will do summer events in the United States, and the events will continue to grow each year to increase Futsal.
Players will have the exclusive opportunity to learn USYF´s unique style that makes it different from the rest of the futsal organizations in the world. They will learn what it is like to train in a professional environment for a whole week, whilst having fun and showcasing their skills.
USYF Coaches will be delivering the training sessions and teaching the techniques of the largest Futsal body across the United States. The training has been designed for players of all levels to improve the underlying techniques of futsal accurately, consistently and at game tempo.
Our events will take place on the following cities and dates:
Kansas City: June 27 – July 1
Milwaukee: July 11 – July 15
Indianapolis: July 18 – July 22
Charlotte: July 25 – July 29
We would like to thank our partners at USYF and give a special shout out to legend Keith Tozer for his ongoing support.
For more information, please visit https://www.usyouthfutsal.com/summercamp
Stay Tuned for more events coming up! @islagency
After a forced two year break due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, ISL resumes its events and sports travelling activities to the UK. We are extremely excited to return to the home of soccer!
“We can finally return to the UK since this program offers different activities and experiences to our programs in Spain. I am very satisfied with the team’s great work, since October we have had 6 events during the toughest moments of the pandemic and the peak of the Omicron variant. That is not easy at all and it is due to the great work of the Experiences team.” – says Achille Obougou, Director of Travel Management.
Players and their families will join Team ISL on its return to the British Isles for an unforgettable nine-day experience visiting London and Manchester.
The players will train at Manchester City’s facilities with Manchester City´s official coaches and compete in friendlies against other teams. They will also train at West Ham´s training grounds for a day.
Players and families will enjoy exclusive tours of the Etihad Stadium and Old Trafford in Manchester, as well as two Premier League games. They will be lucky enough to watch World Champions Chelsea take on Crystal Palace on Saturday and Manchester United battle Watford next weekend.
Outdoor and cultural activities are planned for players and families to explore these two soccer hungry cities. More exciting surprises await our guests and we can´t wait for you to arrive!
The ISL team has been working hard to offer better travel experiences, prioritizing the players’ and families’ safety at all times.
This season, ISL has 20 sport events lined up in 5 different locations.
Stay tuned for more information about our soccer experiences! @team_isl
2018 Ballon d’OR winner Luka Modric´s first NFT (non-fungible token) collection will be made available by Ethernity Chain, found exclusively on their platform.
After the successful launches of Messi´s record-breaking NFT collection in August (grossing $3.4 million dollars on the first day), followed up by the popular Luis Suárez NFT launch in October, ISL and Ethernity will turn the Real Madrid talisman into historic digital tokens.
The Croatian national team´s captain will be the next soccer star with an official and authenticated NFT collection. Details about the collection will be announced in due course.
ISL – Ethernity’s official and exclusive soccer partner – has brokered the deal between Ethernity Chain and Luka Modric, as was the case with Messi and Luis Suárez.
Ethernity’s previous NFT collections for Copa América, Luis Suárez and Messi reached an accumulated sales value of over $5 million dollars, positioning Ethernity and ISL as a leading reference of digital art in the soccer industry.
“We are excited to continue bringing the biggest soccer names in history to join the exclusive talent family of Ethernity. Modric is gold and represents a transgenerational legend whose legacy will remain forever after launching his first NFT collection on Ethernity,” – says Marc Segarra, ISL Managing Partner.
In the coming months ISL and Ethernity will proudly announce more NFT collections with top global soccer brands.
Stay tuned!
ISL and USYF (United States Youth Futsal – a US Soccer member) have been collaborating for the past 3 years in developing and growing futsal in the US and teamed up at the end of last month for USYF´s international experience in Madrid, Spain.
Over the years, ISL has participated in USYF events (bringing 40 teams to the USYF National in Kansas), has run USYF national and state ID’s in multiple cities/states, and has managed the USYF international experience in Barcelona.
Spearheaded by Futsal legend Keith Tozer under the guidance and expertise of ISL, players, their coaches and some family members traveled to Madrid to train, compete against the top Futsal Academies in the region and tour the beautiful Spanish capital. ISL staff was ever-present and on hand to support USYF and its players. A special thank you is in order for Brian Catrine and Soorena Farboodmanesh, without both of you this wouldn’t have been possible.
Fifteen teams from different age groups enjoyed training on a near daily basis and friendly games were organized for them to showcase their skills and elevate their game by competing against the very best Spain’s capital has to offer whilst representing USYF, the United States and ISL.
Players also were lucky enough to tour downtown Madrid’s Retiro Park, take a tour of Madrid´s historic district and enjoy Madrid´s premier theme park, Parque Warner.
Kaylen and Kylie (two of USYF´s rising stars) commented respectively: “I thought it was really good because we learnt a lot of new things and I loved playing against teams in Madrid,” Kylie added, “I think it was awesome, it was really fun to play against the Spanish teams.”
Stay Tuned for more events coming up! @islagency
ISL’s Tandhem player Luis “Koldo” Pérez was presented yesterday as one of Koi’s players – the new esports team founded by Ibai Llanos, one of the biggest Spanish streamers, and FC Barcelona star Gerard Piqué.
The Koi presentation took place at Barcelona‘s Palau St. Jordi, with a full house of more than 15.000 attendees. The tickets were sold out only 5 minutes after their release, and the event was live streamed on Ibai Llanos’ Twitch channel to over 300.000 viewers.
ISL attended the presentation, where Ibai and Piqué unveiled Koi’s LoL team members, content creators, and sponsors, including Disney+ and Cupra.
There was also a live draft of a car valued in 36.000€, and a show match against the French world renowned team Karmine Corp, which was the first victory for Squad Koi by 2-1.
In less than one day, Koi gathered half a million followers on Twitter and Instagram, surpassing many established esports teams, such Kcorp themselves.
We at ISL are thrilled to join this ground-breaking and innovative project with our Tandhem Esports branch.
Tandhem stands out by its unique capacity to identify and develop new soccer and esports youth talent.
Koldo is one of the numerous promising talents managed by Tandhem,
Born on November 7th, 2000 in Murcia, Spain, under the name of Luis Pérez, Koldo is a League of Legends jungler, previously playing for G2 Artic. He is very excited about joining Koi and looks forward to beginning this new challenge.
“I’m glad to be here, and very happy with the team, the club and this opportunity” Koldo said during his presentation speech at Palau Sant Jordi.
Koldo and the rest of the team will compete in the LVP and live at the Gaming House – an esports villa especially designed for high performance esports players.
Stay tuned for more updates on the Gaming House and Squad Koi’s results!
LaLiga Select – LaLiga’s pathway in North America powered by ISL – will have a second edition next year, with Talent IDs in six new cities across the US.
Created by the best league in the world, LaLiga Select was launched early this year as the first official recruitment platform of LaLiga to scout youth talent in North America.
The platform provides young American soccer players, aged 13 to 18, the opportunity to showcase their talent and start a professional soccer career in a youth club from LaLiga.
This year’s Talent IDs and Showcases sold out in the US and Canada with thousands of players joining. The high demand drove ISL and LaLiga to open registrations for a second edition of LaLiga Select, adding 3 new cities to the Talent IDs roster: San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
“After a very successful launch year, LaLiga Select will keep opening the doors of European soccer for American players, creating a quality reference in US soccer, while positioning Spain as an attractive market for young US players.” – says Alex Isern, ISL CEO.
In March 2022, the selected players from this year’s scouting events will attend a Showcase in Spain to train and compete under the supervision of different Technical Directors from LaLiga Youth Clubs. The best player from each age category will be recruited to participate in a sponsored training camp with a LaLiga Youth Club, and the Talent IDs will start again in June 2022.
“LaLiga Select aims to contribute to the development of young American talent, providing players an opportunity to showcase their talent, an experience that will step up their game, and ultimately, the chance to kick off their dream of becoming a professional soccer player and one day represent their country in the World Cup”,says Nicolás García Hemme, VP of Strategy & Business Development for LaLiga North America, “Our goal is to collaborate with local clubs to become their international recruitment arm and continue to add new locations every year in different American regions.”
“Soccer in the US is becoming a global referent in the production of talent; Dest, Puilisic, Musah, Tyler Adam, Reyna just to name a few. The common trait of all these American players is that they have an experience overseas. For that reason, we strongly believe that having an established path such as LaLiga Select will enable aspiring professional soccer players in the United States to achieve their dreams.”, explains Marc Segarra, ISL Co-founder.
The ISL Foundation launched a solidarity campaign – Thanks For Giving – during the month of November to help feed the homeless on Thanksgiving, in Miami.
The campaign used ISL’s social media channels to promote the cause and collect donations.
With the money collected the ISL Foundation bought and distributed the meals on November 26th.
Donations reached more than $1.000 which gave us the chance to distribute over 100 meals in collaboration with a local homeless shelter, the Miami Rescue Mission.
”Thanksgiving is a time to appreciate what we have. I firmly believe giving to others can make us feel even more grateful for what we have. Happiness is only real when shared, and no matter how big or small the contribution, we can all help our communities by spreading kindness”. – said Ximena Niembro, ISL’s Marketing Director who conceived and executed the Thanks for Giving campaign.
ISL is extremely involved in its local communities, both in the US and in Spain, and it is part of ISL’s vision to help fight world hunger and bring relief to those in need.
The ISL Foundation has organized two solidarity campaigns this quarter, the first one in October to celebrate World Food Day, collecting 308 pounds of food in Charlotte. Thanks for Giving was the second campaign, and a third one will be launched in December in collaboration with ISL’s Barça Academy and Futsal schools to collect warm clothes, food and toys across the US.
Stay tuned and help us make a difference! @islagency
Yesterday morning, the captain of FC Barcelona and Spain’s national team, passed by ISL’s Barcelona Soccer Experience training session to meet our players.
Busquets stopped at the Barcelona Soccer Experience training session to meet the 135 American players who travelled overseas to enjoy an unique soccer experience. It was a big surprise for all the young players, who were very excited to meet an international soccer star.
Just like them, Busquets had the dream to one day play for a club like Barça, and since 2005 he has been making his dream come true every day, step by step. From the Barça youth teams, to the first team, to wearing the blaugrana Captain armband. His perseverance, commitment and hard work are inspirational for all the young generations.
Sergio took the time to take a picture with each player and encourage them to keep pursuing their professional soccer careers.
The Barcelona Soccer Experience is a program developed by ISL to provide a professional and international soccer experience that players can’t have access to in the US. As the places are limited, the scouting process is made in collaboration with Barça Academy US, reaching players from all across the country.
The program offers American players and their families an exclusive and unique soccer experience in Barcelona, combining training sessions with official Barça Academy coaches, and competition matches against other Spanish teams. It also includes cultural guided excursions, an exclusive Camp Nou tour, Barça home matches, and many surprises!
For more information about The Barcelona Soccer Experience check https://islagencyold.wpenginepowered.com/travel/
