ESEM - Part of your team

Early January in Marbella may be the middle of Winter as such but the Costa Del Sol’s fantastic micro-climate lends itself perfectly to warm weather training so it was with great pleasure that ESEM organised a 5-day training camp for the Dutch Paralympic Squad which began on 8th January.

After being contacted by OAD, the official travel agent for the Dutch FA, Marielle Liedenbaum, general manager at ESEM’s Marbella office, was tasked with organising and running the camp and she immediately hit it off with her fellow countrymen.  She explains:  “The training camp was held at the Marbella Football Centre and the 15 players and five staff involved were a pleasure to work with.

“The squad, who are all ambulant cerebral palsy athletes, is made up of players aged between 18 and 32 and other than there being a need for a 7-a-side pitch for them to work on, they didn’t need any special arrangements that might have made their experience any different to that enjoyed by any of the top players we look after.”

The party stayed at the 4 Star Rincon Andaluz Hotel in Marbella as part of their preparations for the CPISRA Football 7-a-side World Championships which were held in Drenthe between 17^th June and 1^st July.  Under the guidance of Head Coach, Marcel Geestman, the team finished fifth in the tournament, defeating the likes of Scotland and Argentina along the way.

Over the course of its qualifying campaign for the 2012 London Paralympic games, the team, finished second in its group and they are now through to the one of the biggest events in the World.  Everyone is now looking to ensure that they go into that competition with the best possible preparation behind of them but as Marielle continues, they have some seriously good players among their number and are expected to do well.  She says:  “The team has some extremely talented players and as a proud Dutch lady, I’m sure they will do really well in London.

“It is perhaps worth mentioning that while they were training in Marbella, various other professional sides from across Europe were also there and many of the players and staff took time out to watch them play and were incredibly impressed with their ability.”

Later in the season, Marielle was helping to look after Dynamo Kiev when they played Braga in the semi-final of the Europa League.  In staying overnight at a hotel in Porto, she was delighted to bump into the squad at breakfast.  She concudes:  “It was an incredible coincidence that they were there at the same time but it was fantastic to see them all again.  They are an amazing bunch of people and I very much hope we might be able to work with them again in the future.”