NFA aims to prioritize young footballers in Bacolod, NegOcc

Naturalized Filipino citizen and professional football player Bienvenido “Bienve” Marañon, who formerly played for the Ceres-Negros FC (now United City FC), announced his launching of Negros-Academia de Futbol or Negros Football Academy during a press conference at Nature’s Village Resort in Talisay City on Wednesday, November 2.

The NFA (Negros – Academia de Futbol) will prioritize boys and girls from 4 up to 16 years old with a vision of international exposure. For men and women, they will arrange to create sessions and will form teams once they have a pool of players.

As founder and CEO of NFA, ‘Bienve’ Marañon shared that this is his way of giving back his love to Bacolodnons and Negrosanons by choosing Bacolod Central District as his launch pad for the football academy’s training center.

The academia aims to provide a secure venue, the best facilities, and world class knowledge to be introduced in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental. “This private place (Bacolod Central District) will provide security to the young players which is important to the parents, including the safety of our technical staff and anyone that will go there to watch football,” Marañon emphasized.

After making a dent in Spain football for a decade, Marañon gave it a go to play with the Ceres FC (before it became Ceres-Negros) in the United Football League of the Philippines in 2015. One of his notable achievements was when he became the all-time top scorer in the Asian Football Championship Cup in 2020 after scoring his 35th goal for Ceres–Negros’s 4–0 win against Bali United FC.

Interested footballers can visit their training center at the Bacolod Central District Speedway along Lacson Street near Art District in this city from 11AM to 3PM with a valid ID. The registration fee is P1,000 and a monthly fee of P2,500.* (H. James G.Toga)