(Bishkek) The Spanish club FC Barcelona opened a football academy in Kyrgyzstan and inaugurated on Wednesday the construction of a second, the first in Central Asia, a region where football is developing despite the lack of infrastructure.

“The academy is FC Barcelona’s first large-scale project in Central Asia and will therefore hold a special place in the history of Kyrgyz football,” said Sadyr Japarov, the leader of this mountainous former republic of some 7 millions of inhabitants.

The Barcelona delegation led by President Joan Laporta was welcomed by Kamtchybek Tachiev, head of the secret services from Jalal-Abad, a southern city where the first Barça academy was built and inaugurated. The second is to be built in the capital Bishkek.

“We hope that one day Kyrgyzstan will be able to participate in a World Cup and we want the children of this country to be able to learn and practice football”, assured on his arrival the Catalan president, quoted on the club’s website, five times winner of the prestigious Champions League.

A match between a selection of former Barça glories and one of the former Soviet republics of Central Asia in Bishkek closed the visit of the Catalan delegation on Wednesday, in front of spectators unaccustomed to seeing football stars.

“It’s a real event for me that the legends of Barcelona are here,” rejoiced with AFP before this match Sarvar Taalaïbekov, ten years old.

Among the Catalan selection who made this trip of nearly 6000 kilometers as the crow flies from Spain were the 1999 Ballon d’Or, Rivaldo, the emblematic Spanish defender Carles Puyol or the former French international Ludovic Giuly, who have notably faces President Japarov.

Highly anticipated, the 2005 Ballon d’Or, Ronaldinho, was finally absent, due to legal concerns, several media said.

In the five former Soviet republics of Central Asia – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan – football still suffers from lack of infrastructure and competition for traditional sports, equestrian or combat.

But the modest Central Asian teams are making progress, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, for example, having reached the round of 16 of the last Asian Cup, while UEFA member Kazakhstan recently beat Denmark (3- 2) during the qualifiers for Euro-2024.

Other symbols of the development of this sport, the organization in June of the first Central Asian championship and the recent visits to the region by FIFA President Gianni Infantino.