Introducing: Luis Vicente Mateo, CEO & Founder of MVP Sports Consulting
I am happy to have this opportunity to introduce myself.
My name is Luis Vicente, and I am about to turn 40 years old.
I was born on September 26, 1985, in a very small town in the south of Alicante, Spain, called Benferri.
From a very early age, I always showed interest in sports, and until I was 14 years old, I participated in school sports in my town because we were not fortunate enough to have the facilities that exist today, especially a football field where we could play.
This is my journey.
The Early Years
At 14, I started playing federated football in the second year of the cadet category in a nearby town. This allowed my brother and me to begin a very beautiful time in our lives. I played in this town for two seasons, and then I was signed by the youth team of Atlético Orihuela, where I also spent two wonderful seasons with an incredible group of teammates.
When I finished my youth stage, I signed for Orihuela B, the reserve team of Orihuela at that time, where I also spent three wonderful years, from 2004 to 2007. I even participated in preseason a couple of times with the first team and achieved a promotion in 2005 with Orihuela B in a magnificent season.
During these three years, I continued my education and completed a degree in Physical Education Teaching and several courses related to sports that allowed me to start my path as a trainer and educator of very young boys and girls in Orihuela. Here, I worked as a children’s coach and swimming instructor during the summers and began to envision a future career as an educator and trainer of children at early ages.
In 2008, we founded the club of my town with different board members, many of whom still remain 17 years later.
My Progression
Within a couple of years, this club managed to promote the first team to the 6th category of Spain and had more than 300 children, ranging from 5 to 18 years old, in the different academy teams.
During the five years I was at the club, I took on all roles and functions, from coaching and coordinating the youngest kids to leading the academy with a very interesting development project for boys and girls. At the same time, I played for the first team and was its captain, and my leadership qualities already emerged at a young age.
In 2010, I completed my first coaching level in the Murcia region, the Level 1 or UEFA B, and continued my training because I saw that the development of boys and girls was becoming increasingly complex.
With more than five years of experience in my town’s football school and knowing the world I was entering, I got the opportunity to join Valencia CF in July 2013. A call from former player Rufete, who had played for many professional teams and was the former sporting director of Valencia and Espanyol, changed my life. On July 13, 2013, I signed my first contract with Valencia CF at their offices and joined the Valencia academy as assistant to the general sports manager.
Those were six years full of joy, excitement, hard work, and a tremendous ability to adapt to all the changes I experienced within the club. From that time, I take away the learnings and memories of the team we built and the many players we helped develop who are now in professional or semi-professional football. This is the greatest satisfaction when working in youth academies. But I must also say that I always had some doubts about whether we were making the right decisions and taking the right approach concerning the boys and girls, and I began to question everything.
Growth & Adventure- What lies ahead
Between 2017 and 2019, I continued my education with a prestigious master’s degree in Europe to better analyze from a performance perspective: a Master’s in High Performance in Team Sports.
It was six years of hard work, seven days a week, 24 hours dedicated to the club, and a lot of personal and professional growth. I was very fortunate to arrive at Valencia with Rufete and to work with Alessanco (currently director of Barcelona’s academy) and Pablo Longoria (current executive president of Olympique de Marseille).
My time at Valencia ended on January 10, 2019, and the next day, January 11, I closed a training and talent scouting project in Africa/Kenya with LA LIGA.
I traveled between January and May 2019, and the project fulfilled me personally and made me understand the realities of another world, such as Africa.
In June 2019, after receiving several offers from clubs, I closed a project in Israel as Technical Director of their academy, with a future ahead to build a solid structure in their club that would endure over time.
I arrived in Israel on June 11, 2019, full of enthusiasm for this fresh start in a new country, culture, and knowledge. This excited me because it was a challenge for me and my family.
We achieved many things in the club during the year I was there, but the most rewarding for me was how the coaches changed their paradigm from seeing boys who played to seeing them as someone whose talent I had to learn to develop. During this year, we also worked very hard to build a bridge that still exists today between the first team and the academy to have better and more prepared players.
I met many people who are still at the club and taught me a lot about their culture, country, and how they see football within such a powerful industry.
The Pandemic - The Age of Developement & Uncertainty
In May 2020, during the pandemic, a call (the second time in seven years) from Rufete, who was then at Espanyol, changed my life again and made me return to Spain with my family to join as Academy Director at RCD Espanyol de Barcelona.
The project was again very interesting, matching the professionalism of Rufete (the best person I have met in the football world), and I decided to join him with much sadness because I was leaving behind a year of great work in Israel and many changes. It was a tough decision, but combined with family and the uncertain global times at that moment, I chose to join Espanyol’s project.
On June 26, 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, I traveled from Alicante to Barcelona with the greatest enthusiasm to join a top project as director of one of the best youth academies in Spain and Europe, as I later had the pleasure to know.
I joined Rufete to round out the group together with Domingo Catoira, Hugo Blanco, and Rufete himself.
Those were two magnificent years until Rufete’s departure, which shook the entire project. During the last year, I was no longer comfortable at the club.
My emotions and feelings day to day made me think that the project should end due to everything that happened around me, or because I did not manage that moment of my life well, both professionally and personally.
We achieved great things, especially returning Espanyol to the first division (La Liga) and maintaining it solidly in the first year after promotion. In the academy, several championships, a Juvenile Copa del Rey final against Real Madrid, a Promises tournament, and above all, a lot of training and comprehensive development of the boys with a model much more adapted to the times and with many more objective data to work with.
What's Next?
As I said, the 2022-23 season was not good for me personally, but especially professionally, and everything bad that can happen in football happened to me that season.
On May 1, 2023, I signed my contract termination and left the club with great sadness, knowing it was not the best decision professionally, but thinking it was best for my family and my two daughters, aged 4 and 2, whom I have not yet mentioned.
Those were hard days and weeks, wanting not to see reality and thinking about which other clubs with my trajectory and CV would call me (and nothing was further from reality). I kept traveling and watching football to be present on the fields and visible, but nothing.
During these complicated months, the idea/project of the company I now manage is to provide consulting and mentoring for parents, players, football schools, and club investors was born to help and especially accompany them on their path, which in a world where immediacy and quick money are prioritized over everything else, seems needed.It is dangerous to play with the dreams of many boys and girls, families, schools, and entire clubs, sometimes just to earn a little more money without thinking about the consequences that our comments and decisions could have.
By November 2023, I had everything ready to launch as a company, and before going to market, a call came from the owner of a club in the 2ª RFEF near home, whom I had already helped and advised before, not only with Orihuela but also with his son, who currently plays in Huesca B.
During this call, the “football/club man” inside me woke up again, and I accepted very quickly with the sole purpose of contributing all my experience and learnings to the club so that the club would grow and so would all those who were part of it.
I joined the club during a very complicated situation of results and, above all, human relations and dynamics within the club. Thanks to a lot of hard and excellent work from everyone, we managed to take the club to the brink of a promotion we deserved, but football did not grant us.
It may be the greatest disappointment I have had in the world of football: that fateful match against Barakaldo, with everything in our favor to achieve promotion to 1ª RFEF, became one of the worst days of my professional life.
I recovered from the blow, and on that June day, we held a press conference to explain to the fans (thousands of whom followed us until the end of the almost-promotion) that the project was still underway and that there was no time to lament, only to work.
In July, the owner and I met and realized that our vision was no longer aligned, and I left the club. I relived those past ghosts that make you question everything about this complex world, and I have not expressed yet, but I was in emotional shock for several weeks trying to digest the decision and the implications.
All these experiences have made me see and recognize the potential we have within the non-professional football world and the opportunities that boys and girls lose or do not take advantage of because they are not well prepared or because they are not well accompanied in their development process when they are at the learning and growth stage.
A Brighter Future - Working Together
Right now, I, Luis Vicente, is a person trying to create real, honest opportunites and collaborate with people who share my values to share what winning is. I am in the process of launching my business, (consulting that is dedicated to families and players) and trying to create and launch projects where happiness and professionalism win over the rush to do things just to make a quick buck.
We must be responsible and accompany boys/girls and their families on their path to becoming football players, whatever the level they are at.
Remember, if you are prepared, the opportunities will come, but regardless, seek the best help and company most suited to help you on your path; otherwise, it will be almost impossible to achieve the DREAM alone.
Luis Vicente Mateo
CEO & Founder, MVP Sports Consulting
