Joan Vilà: "We have prepared Xavi for this new stage".

Joan and Ferran Vilà, founders of the company Go Up Players have visited 'La Pizarra de Quintana' this Wednesday.

Go Up Players is a company that specialises in advising players and coaches and has worked with players such as Puyol, Xavi and Marc Bartra.

The role of this type of company is vital in the lives of sportsmen and women today, which is why Miguel Quintana interviewed Joan and Ferran Vilà for 'La Pizarra de Quintana' with Adrián Blanco and Álex de Llano.

What is Go Up Players: "An opportunity for the player to get to know himself and see where his limits are, to know how far he can go when he wants to change his life".

Go Up Players was born at the request of a great like Carles Puyol: "Yes, Puyol in 2007 was in a context that was not favourable and because of a personal relationship we gave him a hand in understanding what situations you find yourself in and how to respond to them. But this also goes back a long way when my father was a Barcelona B player and had Laureano Ruiz as coach".

So what is the objective: "We are not going to teach them how to play football, but we are going to help them to play the best they can. To see the performance from a projective dimension and help them to know themselves better. Normally, from experience, when a player is at his best, he is not sitting on the bench.

Lucas Vázquez works with you and is a very remarkable example: "Yes, Lucas has a hybrid position between winger and full-back and we have to find the performance in both positions. But it also depends on the coaches and the teams".

"We have prepared Xavi for this new stage".

Joan Vilà

Joan Vilà

In addition to Puyol, Lucas Vázquez and Sergi Gómez, what other examples can you give us? Marc Bartra, Gaku Shibasaki, Pablo Marí and Take Kubo are examples of players who have realised that they need to improve and we are here to help them. They are examples of players who have perceived this need for improvement and we are here to help them, we want to help the player to reach his best version in a team that tomorrow could be another one".

And have you worked with Xavi Hernandez: "Of course, because we have a very close relationship with Xavi and we have prepared him and his team for this new stage. We have also worked with Jaime Lozano, Mexico U-23 coach, until this Olympic tournament.