Villarreal CF and Wakatake Group join forces for the development of young Japanese footballers
Upon his visit to Villarreal CF, we sat down with Joel Santos from Wakatake Group to talk about the Japanese company’s collaboration agreement with the Yellow Submarine.
How did the educational agreement between Villarreal CF and Wakatake come about?
I’ve always had a feeling that we were going to link up with Villarreal and the time came some months ago. Last year, in the middle of a difficult year for everyone, we had the great honour of LaLiga choosing us as their representatives, as their partners, for the education and development of youth football in Japan.
Villarreal did a presentation that amazed our whole team. It didn’t surprise me because I have been following the club for a long time, but it was the first time I had heard directly, in a one-to-one conversation with someone from the club, explain what Villarreal is all about on the inside; philosophy, training methods and especially the idea of training and education that you have both on and off the pitch. Putting a lot of emphasis on the psychological part too, that players learn to think and make decisions for themselves and we fell in love with Julio Salinas and everything he explained to us about Villarreal.
What benefits will this partnership have for Japanese youngsters?
We are very excited that this partnership has multiple benefits. Building this bridge between Villarreal and Wakatake will mean building a direct bridge towards the dreams our players have. Our players’ dreams and those of more and more players in Japan are to become professional footballers in Spain.
We always say that our mission at Wakatake is to support our players’ dreams and that is what gets us out of bed every day.
We believe that this programme and this partnership with Villarreal will impact players above all in their development as footballers, but also as people.
A few years ago they were perhaps more interested in other leagues such as the English or German leagues. For example, Kagawa who was the captain of the Japanese national team played in those two leagues and they had more power. But now we clearly see that they are asking us for Spain, Spain and Spain, and we consider that the best training and development project we can work with in Spain is yours.
What are the expectations and objectives of the agreement?
The first expectation is to be able, day by day and step by step, to plant strong seeds. In this first project that will see 11 players come here we want things to go very well this year. For them to grow a lot as footballers and as people. As we say and as I think Villarreal also has very much in its DNA: think big and act small, in the day to day, with love/affection, with lots of care.
What Villarreal CF values would you highlight?
I think loyalty is a very palpable value at Villarreal. Starting on the pitch, loyalty to a style of play. In these 20 years following the club I have seen Villarreal in great and successful times, and also in down and difficult times, such as relegation to the second division, and through it all there has always been loyalty to a style.
It’s one of those footballing projects or of another kind that you see from a distance and you recognize an identity and that is really important for us also as a project and I think in life.
The value Villarreal gives to developing talent. I believe that this is another fundamental value and of course for Wakatake too. We live to empower players’ dreams and to develop their talent which is obviously an important value.
And then I would say, going back to the concept of thinking big and acting small, from the president to the people inside the club and from what I have been able to see from the outside, you have become one of the big clubs. Now even with results and titles, which was perhaps the only thing that was missing, you haven’t lost that familiarity, closeness, humility, attention to detail. This season, for example, putting the faces of the fans in the crowd. These are things that both Wakatake and the country of Japan value a lot.
