MUFC European Tour 2015/16 Recap

Marbella United FC recently returned from their 1^st European Tour. The team faced professional academies from Holland, Belgium & Germany over the course of 18 days. With the demanding schedule, the academy took their whole 44 man roster with some welcomed high class additions.The purpose of the tour was to expose and offer a once in a lifetime experience to MUFC players. Players were playing against high-class opposition in front of scouts and surrounding clubs on a daily basis.Based in a small city around 1 hour from Amsterdam the players stayed in Deventer, Holland that would be our base for the trip. With 17 games penciled in, every single one of our players were given valuable playing time in which helped improve them over the course of the trip. This was evident as the tour progressed, MUFC performances got stronger and this was reflected by the results. Just some of our results consisted of:Holland Division 1 Academies:PEC Zwolle U17’s 1 – 1 MUFC U18’sPEC Zwolle U19’s 2 – 1 MUFC U21’sNEC Nijimegen U17’s 1 – 1 MUFC U18’sNEC Nijimegen U19’s 1 – 3 MUFC U21’sDe Graafschap U17’s 1 – 1 MUFC U19’sHolland Division 2 Academies:Go Ahead Eagles U17’s 1 – 1 MUFC U18’sGo Ahead Eagles U19’s 4 – 4 MUFC U18’s Belgian Division 1 Academy:Club Brugge U19's 2 - 1 MUFC U21's German Division 3 Academies:Preussen Münster U19’s 2 – 1 MUFC U21’s German Division 4 ASC 09 Dortmund 1^st team 1- 3 MUFC XIASC 09 Dortmund U19’s 1 – 1 MUFC U19’sWhile the results were fantastic, the team’s performances went from strength to strength. Of course, with such an extensive time away from the sun of Marbella, our players were able to get a great overall experience. Some of these experiences;

• A guided tour & lunch around Amsterdam as well as time to sightsee.
• Multiple trips to Amsterdam amongst other cities to visit, shop and see the culture.
• A coaching session from FC Twente’s coaches and a guided tour of their stadium & lunch.
• A sightseeing trip around our local town Deventer.
• Opportunities to watch Go Ahead Eagles win 5-0, other opportunities to watch FC Twente & NEC Nijimegen.
• Able to watch the Marc Overmar’s Easter Tournament that hosted academies such as Anderlecht, Ajax, Bayer Leverkusen etc…
• Rent a bike to explore the surrounding area of Deventer.

 With all these amazing experiences and high-level competitive fixtures, our MUFC student-athletes had to manage their academic responsibilities as well. However there was a healthy balance between all 3 components of this trip.As an outcome of the trip we have interest from scouts that watched our games, with 7 players being identified for possible tryouts for clubs across Europe. More information will be released on this at a later date. For more pictures please like our ‘Marbella United FC, Spain’ page and our ‘Marbella Galleries’ page on Facebook.Now MUFC are back in Spain, we are looking to continue this momentum by arranging friendlies against further La Liga academies along with professional teams from Gibraltar.