Inside a Professional Spanish Football Club: Our New Partnership in Huesca

Elite Football has agreed a new partnership with Huesca, a professional Spanish football club, which gives Australian players a direct route into a club that is deliberately building an international pathway.

By Alan Deriard, Football Agent, Elite Football

Short Summary

We spent two days inside the club in Huesca. We watched training sessions, saw our players, and sat down with the club to confirm a new collaboration between the club and our football agency.

The club was very direct about what they want. They want international players. They already work across five continents, and they told us Australia is one of the most important because, in their words, Australia has very good players and very good developing players.

This article covers what the club actually said, what it means for Australian players looking at European football clubs, and what I saw from the players already living there.

Key Takeaways

• Elite Football and Huesca, a professional Spanish football club, have begun a new partnership focused on Australian players and player development.
• The club works across five continents and said Australia is one of the most important markets because of the quality of its players and its developing players.
• Blake, our goalkeeper at the club, was told the club is very happy with his performance and wants to extend his time there, with a federative pass raised as an option because he is over 18.
• The hardest part of a move to Spain is rarely the football. It is consistency, the mental game, the language, and the environment off the pitch.
• Released UK players are increasingly choosing Spain over the lower step leagues at home, which tells you how competitive these places now are.

Why I'm Writing This

Players and parents ask me the same question whenever we announce a new club relationship. What does a partnership with a professional Spanish football club actually mean in practice?

Most of what happens on these trips never gets seen. The meetings, the conversations in the players' apartments, the honest chats about how someone is really coping. That is the part that decides whether a football career abroad works.

So I am writing down exactly what happened across two days in Huesca, in the club's own words and the players' own words, with nothing added.

What Actually Happened at the Club

We were in Huesca for two days. That is the pace of this trip. We are in a different place every two days.

In that time we watched training sessions, spent time with the boys where they live, and met with the club about the partnership and about our players there.

Here is how the club opened that meeting:

"Thank you very much Alan and your staff to come Huesca to visit us, and for working with us, a new partnership, a new collaboration together. Thank you very much for your confidence in our academy."

They then said they are working hard on it because it is a very good project for them, that they are going to look after our players, and that they will try to find the best talents and development for Australian players and for our football agency.

Why a Professional Spanish Football Club Wants Australian Players

This is the part Australian players should read twice. The club explained their reasoning themselves:

"Spanish players and European players are very good, but Huesca is not a big city, and we like to expand for all the world. We are now in the five continents in the world. So Australia is one of the most important, because they have very good players and very good developing players."

That is a club strategy, not a favour. A club in a smaller city competes for talent against clubs in bigger cities with bigger budgets. Looking internationally is how they widen the pool.

It also means the door is open on merit. They are not taking Australian players to be nice. They are taking them because they believe the level of Australian football and the level of Australian player development justify it.

What the Club Said About Blake

Blake is a goalkeeper we have at the club. He had been there two to three weeks when we arrived. Before our meeting, the club had already met with me and my staff about the next steps, and then they said this to him directly:

"We are very happy with your performance during the last weeks. We can't announce at the moment if we are thinking in having more time with us in the next year, or maybe have a federative pass, because you are over 18 and you can do that."

On his goalkeeping specifically, they said he has very good skills as a keeper, that he is very high, and that he is very good at getting the balls. They also made the other half of it clear. He is young, and he has to keep working in different trainings and different skills to improve.

They finished by saying they will work with Elite Football to try to expand his time at the club, and told him to keep calm and keep working.

I want to be careful here, because the club was careful. Nothing has been announced. They said plainly that they cannot announce anything at the moment. What exists today is a club that is happy with a player and wants to extend him, which is exactly where you want to be after three weeks.

Blake's Own Words

"I just wanted to say thank you so much. I've loved the time I've been here, even though it's only been two or three weeks. It's such a surreal place. I love the surroundings. All the boys have been really welcoming despite the language difference, and it just feels like such a warm environment. So I'm really happy."

Notice what he mentioned. Not the training. The surroundings, the boys, the language, the environment. That is what players actually live in.

The Conversation That Mattered Most

The most useful conversation of the trip was not in a meeting room. It was with one of our players about consistency.

He described it like this. On a good day he is one of the top players in his group. On other days he feels off, he trains badly, and in a possession game one bad pass sends everything down. His words were that he needs to find a way to improve his mental game.

So I asked him whether he holds a lot of weight on his mistakes as opposed to what he does well. He said yes.

The Skier Analogy

I gave him the analogy I use most often. Watch skiers go down a mountain at the Olympics. There are trees in the way and they pass straight through them.

They are not focusing on the trees. They are focusing on the path. If they focused on the trees, they would hit a tree.

Football is the same. If you make a mistake and then allow yourself to focus on that mistake, you are going to make more mistakes. You have to do your very best to focus on being present, playing the game, and not caring about anything else.

This matters more overseas than at home. A player on trial at a professional Spanish football club is being assessed across weeks of training, not across one pass. The club told Blake they were happy with his performance during the last weeks. Weeks, plural. One bad session is not the verdict. Spiralling after one bad session can become the verdict.

Why UK Players Are Choosing Spain

One of the conversations over dinner was about the UK market, and it is worth repeating for Australian players.

The view from the players was that the UK market is oversaturated. There are a lot of football players in the UK, and a lot of them get released. Once they are released, most cannot go back into a football academy, so they try to get into the step leagues at step two, three or four.

A lot of them would rather not. As one of the players put it, he would rather come to Spain and try out for a second division club than play step two or step three. Spain and Belgium came up as the destinations.

For an Australian player, that is the competitive picture. You are not only being compared to Spanish players at these clubs. You are being compared to released British players with European passports who have decided the Spanish football pyramid is a better bet than their domestic step leagues.

What Two Days on the Road Actually Looks Like

I will be honest about the trip itself, because the highlight reel version is misleading.

By the end of the first day I was absolutely rinsed. It was 8pm, it did not look like 8pm, and I pushed everything into the following day because we were only in Huesca for two days. That meant going flat out from 10 to 10.

The whole team was tired. Our energy was off. We have been travelling too much, in a different place every two days, and people start getting irritable with each other. You will not see that in the footage, but it is there. The fix is not complicated. Sleep, good food, a warm shower, the simple things.

Even so, this was the stop I was most looking forward to, because the club treats us well and I wanted to see in person, for the first time, a lot of the work they do.

The Part Nobody Plans For

One of our players got injured the day we arrived. He was out for about a week, limited to running and a passing drill with no contact, and he missed most of what we were there to do, including the photos.

That is football abroad. The timing is never convenient, and the players who cope best are the ones who do not treat a bad week as a referendum on the whole move.

Common Mistakes Australian Players Make

• Treating the move as a purely football problem, when the language, the living situation and the group are what most players actually struggle with first.
• Treating a club's interest as a signing. Until a club announces something, nothing is announced.
• Judging a trial period on individual mistakes instead of the body of work the club is actually assessing.
• Assuming the Spanish football pathway is only competing with Spanish players, when released players from other countries are targeting the same clubs.
• Ignoring the administrative side, including how age affects the options a club can offer you.

Practical Advice

Work on the mental game before you leave, not after you land. Inconsistency is the issue I hear about most from our players in Spain, and it is almost always about where their attention goes after a mistake.

Expect the language barrier and lean on the group. Blake named the boys and the environment as the reason he settled, not the facilities.

Treat every session as evidence. Clubs form their opinion over weeks of training, which is both reassuring and demanding. One bad day will not sink you, and one good day will not carry you.

Ask the administrative questions early. A player's age changes what a club can and cannot do, which is exactly why the option discussed for Blake was tied to him being over 18.

Final Thoughts

A partnership with a professional Spanish football club is not a headline. It is a working relationship, built by turning up, sitting in the room, and having the club tell you to your face what they think of your players.

Huesca told us they want to look after our players and find the best development for Australian players. We will hold them to that, and our job is to keep sending players who justify it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a partnership between a football agency and a professional Spanish football club involve?

In practice it is an agreed working relationship where the club takes players from the agency, assesses them inside its own environment, and works with the agency on next steps for each player. At Huesca this included the club meeting our staff about individual players, reviewing performance over recent weeks, and discussing how to extend a player's time at the club.

Why do Spanish football clubs want Australian players?

Huesca explained it directly. They are not in a big city, so they look internationally to widen the talent pool, and they already operate across five continents. They described Australia as one of the most important of those markets because it has very good players and very good developing players. It is a development strategy, which means Australian players are judged on merit.

What did the club say about Blake, the goalkeeper at the club?

They said they are very happy with his performance over the last weeks, that his goalkeeping skills are very high, and that he is very good at getting the balls. They also said he is young and must keep improving across different trainings and skills. They could not announce anything yet, but raised extending his time next year or a federative pass, possible because he is over 18.

How do you deal with inconsistency and mistakes as a footballer?

Stop giving your mistakes more weight than your good work. I use the skier analogy. Skiers passing trees at speed focus on the path, not the trees, because focusing on a tree is how you hit it. If you focus on a mistake during a session, you will make more mistakes. The goal is to stay present and keep playing.

Why are UK players choosing Spain instead of the English step leagues?

The players I spoke to in Spain described the UK market as oversaturated. Released players usually cannot return to a football academy, so they end up in the step leagues at step two, three or four. Many would rather play second or third division football in Spain or Belgium instead, which is why Australian players are competing with them for the same places.

TLDR

Elite Football has started a new partnership with Huesca, a professional Spanish football club. We spent two days there watching training sessions, visiting our players and meeting the club about the collaboration.

The club said Spanish and European players are very good, but that Huesca is not a big city and they want to expand worldwide. They already work across five continents and described Australia as one of the most important because of the quality of its players and developing players.

Our goalkeeper Blake, two to three weeks into his time there, was told the club is very happy with his performance, that his keeper skills are very high, and that he needs to keep improving as a young player. The club cannot announce anything yet but raised extending his time next year or a federative pass, which is an option because he is over 18.

The most valuable conversation of the trip was about consistency and the mental game. One of our players described losing a whole session after a single bad pass. The answer is the skier analogy. Focus on the path, not the trees, because whatever you focus on is what you hit.

Over dinner the players described the UK market as oversaturated, with released players pushed into the step leagues and many preferring second or third division football in Spain or Belgium. That is the competition Australian players are up against at European football clubs.

Two days in one city, a different place every two days, a tired team and a player injured the day we arrived. That is the real version of a European football trip, and it is why we keep turning up in person.

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