Corberán to Escoles Cor Blanquinegre students: “A team must never give up and must always look for solutions”  

“The most important thing is that you take everything you’ve learned with you and apply it. Don’t forget it when things go well, and don’t forget it when they don’t. You’ve told me you’re not going to give up—so when things don’t go well, giving up is not an option. You’ve told me you’re going to fight—so keep fighting.”

With this message, Valencia CF head coach Carlos Corberán concluded his meeting with 27 students from Escoles Cor Blanquinegre—a sport and education initiative run by the VCF Foundation, which this season (2024/25) celebrates 10 years of impact. The selected students earned their place through both academic and sporting merit.

In line with that message, when asked about the key factors behind the team’s strong second half of the season, the coach replied that the first was that “the entire squad has shown full commitment and fought hard every single day to reach the objective—they never stopped fighting. And the second most important factor is that everyone contributed—both those who played more and those who played less—to help us achieve our goal.”

Corberán, who spent 12 years as a goalkeeper in the Valencia CF academy, spoke informally with Matías, Gabriela, Nourhan, Juan, Aaron, David, Cayetano, Alan, Cristina, Higinio Jesús, Mounir, Hajar, Rayan Choque, Manuel, Jesús, Juan, Sava, Alan, Amimami, Ousmane, Hawa, Amanda, Hamed, Redwan Oussaleh, Zhara, Sara, and Erik.

“For me,” said Carlos Corberán, “there are two values a team must never forget. One is to never give up, and the other is to always look for solutions to make things work the way you want.”

Escoles Cor Blanquinegre is run every school year in collaboration with the Diputació de València, taking place in 20 schools across the Valencian Community, many of them in socially challenging environments. Each season, the initiative directly benefits an average of 300 participants and indirectly impacts around 3,500 more.

Asked about the most important part of managing a group, the coach replied: “It’s two things. Being demanding—because part of my job is showing them they’re capable of more than they think. And inspiring them to want to do it and improve—so they do it even better. That means being demanding, yes, but also understanding them—because if we don’t understand them, it’s very hard to help them.”

Since the 2015/16 season, coaches from the VCF Academy, VCF Femenino, and the VCF Former Players Association have been delivering weekly training sessions packed with values at each participating school—sessions that serve as an educational tool for school staff.

Within that values-based framework, Corberán shared this closing reflection with the 27 students and their teachers: “For me, more important than winning is doing everything we possibly can to win. None of us like to lose—but what’s worse than losing is not having done everything we could to try to avoid it.”