Rob Horgan
THE world’s richest football club is giving back.
Real Madrid officials have been in Cambodia finalising a deal to build a school.
Offering free education to underprivileged children, it will be the second school built by the Real Madrid Foundation in the Southeast Asian country. The first, in the Cambodian city of Battambang, opened last year.
The new school will be located in the capital, Phnom Penh, and have a specific focus on sport.
In fact, coaches from Real Madrid will visit the school to run football workshops on a regular basis.
Emilio Butragueno, Director of Institutional Relations at Real Madrid, said he was ‘thrilled’ to get the project finalised.
“We discovered that the children were practically living in a landfill and it stirred the soul,” he said.
“The founders of the Real Madrid Foundation realised that as well as food, the children needed education and professional training.”
Coaches from the foundation have been in Phnom Penh sharing their expertise with the NGO Pour un Sourire d’Enfant (PSE) which will run the school.
PSE, founded in 1995 to help underprivileged children in Cambodia, currently has 6,500 students studying in its schools.
