Bruno de Carvalho returns to Lisbon after a fruitful visit to Costa Rica

The Alvalade president Bruno de Carvalho touched down in the Portuguese capital this Saturday, following a productive trip to Costa Rica to open a new Sporting Academy School.

"Sporting CP is the first club to open an academy in Costa Rica. It is really important for our strategy and what we are planning to do in Central and South America. We also used the opportunity to meet with the Costa Football Federation and to talk about ladies football, beach soccer and futsal. We also had the chance to make make contact with other Central American countries. It was really interesting and all of the kids who were there really enjoyed it. Firstly for having the opportunity to put on the Sporting CP shirt, but also because they met Bryan Ruiz and Joel Campbell", opened Bruno de Carvalho, adding: "It is a another academy and another country that we are working directly. They have a lot of promising young players over there and that is really important for us. A club like Sporting CP has to be in Costa Rica, not just because of the brand but also because of the talent there. As a club specialised in training we want to contribute to the development of football in Costa Rica."

The Sporting CP president finished with a word on the Football Talks conference hosted in Lisbon this week: "Football cannot be separated from new technologies...when I started speaking about Video Assistant Referees four years ago nobody listened. Including those who are now going to conferences and saying good things about it. I guess I was right after all, because everyone says football with have technology involved."