Pep Guardiola Hosts 28 Palestinian Children at Annual Football Camp in Spain

Pep Guardiola, the former Manchester City and Barcelona manager, hosted 28 Palestinian children this week at his annual Pep Summer Camp in Rialp, a town in the Catalan Pyrenees, Spain. The camp, organized by the Guardiola Sala Foundation, is in its sixth edition and runs for three weeks, with around 705 children aged 6 to 16 participating. Instead of forming a separate team for the Palestinian children, the organizers integrated them in pairs into the regular training groups, supported by five staff members who acted as interpreters to help them participate fully in daily activities.

Tony Aguilar, the camp director, emphasized the universal nature of football, saying, "They are here like everyone else. They forget the problems they live with every day and enjoy playing football with the other children. Behind the ball, we are all equal." The initiative began in January after a young Palestinian living in Barcelona contacted the camp organizers to bring about 30 children to Spain for a chance to meet Guardiola and experience a brief period of normalcy.

Aguilar noted the special significance of meeting Guardiola due to his public stance on the Palestinian issue, describing him as "one of the few people in football and the media who has taken a clear position on the situation in Palestine." Guardiola visited the camp, interacted with the children, took photos, and watched training sessions. Videos of him spending time with the participants quickly circulated on social media.

Laura Gra, director of the Guardiola Sala Foundation, explained the camp's broader mission: "We try to expose children to different realities. It is important they know there are people living in very different situations." Guardiola has been outspoken in recent years about the Gaza conflict, publicly supporting Palestinians and sharply criticizing Israel. At a charity event in Barcelona in January, he said Palestinian children "have been left alone and abandoned" and urged the world not to ignore their suffering. On another occasion, he stated, "The world left Palestine alone. We did nothing. They are not to blame for being born there. We all allowed a whole country to be destroyed. The damage is already done and irreversible."