Nigeria joins Mexico, Japan, China, and Morocco in Spain for the elite final stage of the 2026 LALIGA and EA SPORTS FC Next Gen Drafts youth academy program.
Nigeria has joined Mexico, China, Japan and Morocco as one of five countries featured in the second edition of LALIGA’s Next Gen Drafts 2026, a groundbreaking youth football development project that sent young Nigerian talents to train alongside Spain’s biggest clubs.
Eight Nigerian participants, four boys and four girls, were selected through international scouting events and rewarded with an exclusive training camp in Spain, where they trained, lived and competed in a high-performance environment alongside academies from Sevilla FC, Real Betis and Atletico Madrid.
The Experience of a Lifetime
The journey began on 25 June in Madrid with a welcome ceremony at LALIGA headquarters, before the young players travelled to Jerez for the main training camp.
Over several days, they didn’t just train, they immersed themselves in the LALIGA ecosystem.
High-performance training sessions with LALIGA club academies
Educational workshops on player development and career planning, Cultural activities in cities like Cádiz, Seville and Madrid
Tours of iconic Spanish football venues: Santiago Bernabéu (Real Madrid), Riyadh Air Metropolitano (Atletico Madrid) and Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan (Sevilla).
The selection process went beyond sporting ability. Organisers considered social factors, ensuring the programme reached talented young players who might otherwise lack access to elite football development.
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Juan Florit, Head of Sporting Projects at LALIGA, celebrated the project’s growth: “We are very proud to see how Next Gen Drafts continues to grow internationally in its second year and how it is establishing itself as a genuine platform of opportunities for young people around the world. This final training camp in Spain perfectly reflects the impact football can have as a tool for education, integration and personal development.”
The farewell ceremony in Madrid wrapped up an edition that confirmed the programme’s international expansion and reinforced LALIGA and EA SPORTS FC™’s shared commitment to increasing access to football for future generations.
The Next Gen Drafts is part of EA SPORTS FC™’s broader FUTURES initiative — a long-term global investment in grassroots football that includes:
Support for more than 15 partner programmes across 10+ countries
Donation of football equipment to underprivileged communities
A free online library of training drills combining video game visuals with expert coaching guidance
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Refurbishment of football pitches in need areas including Madrid, Málaga, Cape Town, São Paulo, Medellín and New York
Nigeria’s inclusion in Next Gen Drafts 2026 signals the country’s position as a talent powerhouse.
The Super Eagles’ rich history of producing world-class players, from Jay-Jay Okocha and Nwankwo Kanu to Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman, who recently joined LaLiga from Italy, makes Nigeria a natural fit for LALIGA’s vision.
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These young Nigerian talents are now part of a global network connecting them with Europe’s best academies, giving them exposure that could fast-track their development and open doors to professional contracts.
Next Gen Drafts 2026 isn’t just a training camp, it’s a launchpad. For the eight Nigerian participants, the experience in Spain could be the difference between remaining local talent and becoming the next generation of Super Eagles stars competing in Europe’s top leagues.