My Digital Time at Villarreal from South Africa

When you love sport, you jump at any opportunity to learn more about how the game works. Not just the actual match but any part of the system that evolves the game and makes it more exciting. My name is Morenike, and I was a remote intern from South Africa for Villarreal CF. I joined the internship right after Villarreal won the UEFA Europa League Championship and it was exciting to see how the club would build from its recent success. I started with researching Villarreal and LaLiga and was then moved to research opportunities in the African football system.

I knew how research is at the core of any major project, however, the details that Villarreal needed, showed that they care about doing things right from the beginning because of the impact a football club can have on its fans and communities and not just the business success of the club. My focus was on researching marketing agencies and smaller clubs that Villarreal could potentially create partnerships with to increase their African footprint and build better European-African football relations.

I researched gaps in the African sport structure to discover where Villareal could help. With this knowledge, I then reached out to local agencies and clubs to try to discover their current position and needs. Overall, I discovered that the vast talents that Africa has do not have enough long-term investment and infrastructure to help elevate most sports in the continent. At the beginning of my internship, I was surprised at the vast number of football academies Villarreal has. Many people may only expect bigger clubs from big cities to have a lot of academies. It showed me that you are never too small to make a big impact. This is why Villarreal is a fantastic club, their Endavante division is focused on developing the community through sport and they want to bring that culture to their African partnerships. I also was given the opportunity to help generate content ideas for the club’s social media platforms as Villarreal wants to do their best to connect with its fans.

My internship showed me the effort that is required to build a successful sporting project, that we cannot look just at the athletes and coaching staff but every single person and department who works tirelessly to build a successful club. I cannot wait to see how Villarreal grows in the future!