French football giants Paris Saint-Germain’s academy coming to Caerphilly

French football giants Paris Saint-Germain – one of the richest clubs in world football – have announced an academy will be running in their name in Caerphilly.

The PSG Academy will be open to boys and girls aged between eight and 15-years-old, with the training camps running during the Easter holidays, the club has announced.

The academy will be based at St Martin’s School.

In a statement, the club said the academy would offer “budding footballers a unique opportunity to learn football and improve their skills in a fun environment”.

The club said the players will train every day and “benefit from the world-renowned training methods of Paris Saint-Germain”, as well as take part in courses on nutrition, sleep, athlete hygiene and recovery.

Wales will become the 15th country in the world to host a PSG football school.

The club said: “Buoyed by the national team’s recent performances, Welsh passion for football is at an all-time high”.

Alex Harrap, founder of the PSG Academy in England, described Wales as a “country that is passionate about football” and said the club was “honoured and excited to offer young Welsh people the opportunity to experience PSG’s training ground methods”.

He said it would be the first of “four of five” academies across Wales.

Nadia Benmokhtar, international manager of the Paris Saint-Germain Academy, said: “This first camp marks a new stage in our international development. We are particularly proud to see that our academies are very popular in countries with a strong football culture, such as Wales.

“In our academies, we offer training that combines football and personal development for young people.

“Our aim is not only to train players, but also to share our technical know-how with local and qualified coaches, who will be the guarantors of the Paris Saint-Germain training methodology.

“I am confident that we will achieve results that match our ambitions in Wales.”

However, the academy will not be run by the club itself, but by ERA Sports and Education, which runs the PSG academies in England.

Who are Paris Saint-Germain?

The French giants are owned by the middle-eastern state of Qatar – one of the richest countries on Earth.

The club has won Ligue 1 – the top division in France – seven times since 2013 and regularly compete in the UEFA Champions League – the most prestigious club tournament in European football.

Last summer, the club signed Argentina’s Lionel Messi – widely regarded as the best player to ever grace the game – from Barcelona, linking up with some of the biggest names in world football such as Kylian Mbappe, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Gini Wijnaldum and Sergio Ramos, as well as Neymar – who cost a world record £200m in 2017.

Former PSG players include the likes of Ronaldinho, Zlatan Ibrahamovic, Edinson Cavani, Thiago Silva and Mauricio Pochettino – who currently manages the club.