I wanted to share the below with you written by my 11 year old son Jacob about his experience playing soccer in the Barcelona Cup. Bubbaroo sponsored the player's playing kit as Jacob and my family are my inspiration and so much a part of the Bubbaroo journey. I was very proud at how Jacob handled himself during his time in Barcelona - his determination, resilience, respect, team spirit, integrity and humility - I'm very proud to be raising such a decent human being. He was very blessed to be given the opportunity, an opportunity that was not at all wasted on him as he has learnt a great deal. On 29 June 2016 my team mates from Nova Soccer Academy and I set off for Barcelona, Spain to play soccer in the Barcelona Cup.
It was a 21-hour flight from Perth to Barcelona with one stop in Singapore. When we arrived in Barcelona a bus took us all to our accommodation Penyafort which was a university residence. My Mum met me at the residence and I was really happy to see her because she'd been away working in London for over 2 weeks. The days that followed we trained on a concrete court on the grounds of the residence. There were no grass courts to train on. We also went to Barceloneta Beach one day and another day we visited Open Camp at the Olympic Stadium - this was awesome! We got to do wheel chair races; long jump; hurdles; shooting; boxing; goal keeping; archery and soccer goal aiming! On Tuesday morning we participated in the Opening Ceremony for the Barcelona Cup with a number of teams from countries all over the world including Italy, Philippines, Kazakstan, Mexico, England, Colombia, Argentina, Spain and many more.

At 4pm Barcelona time on Tuesday, our team played our first match against a Catalonian team called CF Sants Just Desvern on astro-turf which we'd never played on before. We lost 3-0 but we learnt a great deal. The next day we played Makatia from the Philippines with most of the team made up of French players and a much stronger team than our previous competition, we lost again, 3-1 but it was a great experience.

So after two days of losing the team and I really were wanted to win. For the next game, I was the captain. We drew 2-2 with a Colombian team called Nacional Medellin.


We didn't make it to the first division finals but the second division cup finals. We played a local Barcelona team called CE Europa at 5pm and finally won 3-2. This team didn't like to lose and were very disappointed and emotional.

We moved to the semi final of the second division cup. We played that same day at 7pm against an Argentinian team called River Plate. I scored our first goal when we were 2 down. We equalised and then Argentina kicked the ball for the centre pass and landed it into our goals and as the ball hit the net the Ref blew his whistle to end the game. We lost 3-2 with an unbelievable shot. We were a bit shocked and surprised but it was such a great opportunity.

The next day on Saturday we had a little awards ceremony watched the grand final from both first and second division cups. After that my Mum and I went to Park Güell. We then had lunch at an awesome seafood place where you pick your seafood and the chefs would cook it and I would definitely advise you to go there! Here is the name and address. Passatge de Simó, 18, 08025 Barcelona, Spain.

After our beautiful lunch we headed over to the Sagrada Familia. We went into the Nativity tower and had spectacular views. On Saturday night the team and all parents and grandparents went out for a meal and on Sunday we said good-bye to Barcelona and flew home. It's great to be home to see my Dad and sister Emily but I'll always remember my trip and the opportunity of playing soccer in the Barcelona Cup.