La Liga officially announced the launch of their office in India’s capital earlier today as part of a promotional event the Spanish Football league introduced last year.
Former Real Madrid star Fernando Morientes was one of the key men at the event. Morientes serves as one of ten LIGA BBVA ambassadors responsible for building an international image for the competition along with Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos, Frederic Kanoute, Christian Karembeu, Patrick Kluivert, David Albelda, Michel Salgado, Ismael Urzaiz, and Gaizka Mendieta.
Also read: Why India can be the biggest football market by 2025
Morientes is a Spanish La Liga and national team legend. His career involved successful stints at Real Madrid, Valencia, Monaco, and Liverpool. Spread across 15 seasons, Morientes scored 124 goals in 337 games in La Liga.
His 11 major trophies included a whopping 3 Champions League titles. He also featured for Spain in 2 World Cups and made a total of 47 appearances internationally.
Morientes was accompanied by Spain’s immensely successful Davis Cup team comprising Rafael Nadal, Feliciano Lopez, Marc Lopez and David Ferrer. La Liga is the associate sponsor for the Davis Cup clash between India and Spain starting on Friday. The event was also attended by a number of former La Liga legends.
India was earlier identified as one of the key territories in La Liga’s process of internationalisation and a number of key operations will be run from the New Delhi headquarters.
Javier Tebas, president of the La Liga in an earlier interview stated, “India is a very important strategic market for La Liga and we hope to grow in India further and make it the biggest football league in this country.”
"We can also help in the growth of Indian football in general," he went on to add.
At the launch, Morientes said, "I welcome the opening of the LaLiga office and say hello to all the fans in India."
Mendieta, Raul, and the Davis Cup team too wished the Indian fans all the best and expressed their desire to see the venture succeed.
The American Basketball League, National Basketball League (NBA) and WWE already have offices in India and La Liga has now added their name to that list.
