The White Week, an annual event directed at the students, started on the 20th of February. Emilio Butragueño, the director of institutional relationships at Real Madrid, and the general director of Real Madrid Graduate School - Universidad Europea, was in charge of the opening act at the honour box seat at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.
The students from the different Real Madrid masters programmes were able to enjoy the presence of Zinedine Zidane, the coach of Real Madrid´s Football Club first team, who spoke about team work, highlighting the importance of working together, and the benefits of group effort, cooperation and respect. He spoke as a former football player, as a coach and even at a personal level, and replied to all the questions that students asked.
After that, it was the turn of Rafael de los Santos to give a speech, the Director of New Media Business at Real Madrid FC, as well as José Luis López de Ayala, general Director of Twitter Spain. They both spoke about the importance of social networks in the sports world and the role that social networks have within Real Madrid, especially Twitter.
The event also included the presence of Giorgio Marchetti, Assistant Secretary of the UEFA and the Competitions Director of this organisation. The main topic of his speech was the UEFA Champions League, the most prestigious international football tournament, organised by the European Football Associations.
The White Week is framed within the activities promoted by the institution to involve their students with their five main values: entrepreneurialism, team work, integrity, leadership and excellence. In fact, this has only been the first day of a week that will include the presence of several celebrities of the sports world such as Pablo Laso, the Real Madrid basketball team coach, who will speak about “Excellence as a challenge”, or Rafa Nadal´s personal trainer, Toni Nadal, whose speech will be on “The Values on professional sport”.
In its more than 10 years of history, the Real Madrid Graduate School - Universidad Europea has demonstrated that sports management is not only for the elite athletes, but that there are several profiles that work towards the sports world. Something that you can see on a daily basis in the school classes and activities, where over 5.000 students have been educated since their opening year back in 2006. Their main objective goes far beyond that of educating their students, but also to make sure that their professional career is based in the historical values of the Real Madrid Team.