A lucky group of nineteen school children from Biggar High School recently returned from a once in a lifetime five day football development tour to the Spanish mega club, Villarreal.

The tour was organised by Mr Lennox, a PE teacher and Mr Dunbar, a Maths teacher at the school in collaboration with specialist sports tour provider inspiresport.

“We chose Villarreal due to a number of reasons”, said Mr Lennox, “the weather, the excellent hotel facilities and the location of the hotel right next to the beach being great reasons! The standard of the clubs training facilities and the clubs reputation for having excellent coaches were also important reasons for choosing Villarreal as our destination”.

Whilst at Villarreal the pupils from Biggar High School were treated to an action packed schedule from start to finish, that that included rigorous training sessions run by the Villarreal youth coaches and matches against local opposition, a behind the scenes tour of the Estadio el Madrigal, and an epic La Liga match between Villarreal and Real Madrid, which was the highlight of the tour according to Mr Lennox.

“The boys got a real buzz from watching Ronaldo, Kaka, Casillas and the rest of the Galacticos in action!”

“The standard of our coaching sessions was excellent and the match against a very good local Spanish club at the end of our trip proved that all of the boys had come on leaps and bounds by playing quality possession football and creating lots of scoring opportunities. We may have narrowly lost our game 3-2, but we played brilliantly and one of our boys, Andrew Scott, was even named Man of the Match, who also scored one of our goals, along with Jack Warnock”.

“The trip was a once in a lifetime opportunity”, said Mr Lennox, “the boys really got the opportunity to experience life as a professional footballer - taking part in morning and afternoon training sessions, staying in excellent accommodation and eating very well throughout their stay. It was the ultimate footballing experience for a football mad teenager”.

“On a personal note I would also like to thank Alba blinds for sponsoring the team kit”.

Tom Shorey, Managing Director for inspiresport said, "I was so pleased that Biggar High School were able to experience an inspiresport development tour and that they thoroughly enjoyed themselves".

"I truly believe that our sporting development tours play a hugely positive role in a young person's education, offering not only a top class sporting experience but also providing a well rounded cultural trip, the memories of which will last a lifetime"

"Our main objective has always been to make a difference to young people’s lives through providing unique access for all standards of players to the top domestic and international clubs across the world”.