Dundee Football Club and Mexican side CF Monterrey, known locally as Rayados, have today announced a strategic partnership.
The strategic partnership will benefit both clubs as they work together in player development and best sports practices. It will open a pathway to European football for young players from the Rayados Youth Academy.
Speaking on the partnership Dundee FC Chairman Tim Keyes said: “We are extremely excited for the partnership between Dundee FC and CF Monterrey. Monterrey is one of the premier teams in Liga MX with an abundance of talented players and a first-class management team. Despite being on different continents, the culture and approach to developing young talent is very similar between the two clubs. We look forward to this agreement providing great benefits to both clubs over the coming years.”
Current Dundee FC central defender Antonio Portales began his career with Monterrey in his native Mexico. Nicolas Martellotto, director of the Rayados Youth Academy speaks of Portales and how the partnership can benefit other young players from the Academy. “We are very excited about this agreement with Dundee FC, as it represents a great opportunity for players from our Youth Academy to migrate to Europe and continue their development outside of Mexico.
“Portales was a player who lived his process in the Club’s Youth Academy since he was 13 years old. We are looking for more players to follow in his footsteps and continue their career with Dundee FC, in such a competitive ecosystem as the Scottish Premiership.”
Dundee FC joins Club de Futbol Monterrey’s network of International Partner Clubs, which has a presence in the United States, Canada and now in Scotland. Earlier this year Dundee entered into a similar partnership with Burnley FC.
On the new partnership, Dundee FC Managing Director John Nelms said: “Last month myself and Tim went out to Mexico to finalise the deal and we saw for ourselves how big a club Rayados are in Mexico. They have a fantastic youth set-up with over 15,000 individuals in their youth academies, spanning across multiple countries, from age four all the way up to the first team. Both clubs will benefit from this relationship as we share skills and knowledge whilst developing young, talented footballers who can make it into the first team and play at the highest possible level.
“I want to thank Nico – Nicolás Martellotto – for making this partnership possible. Nico has spent months putting together this relationship and strategy. It has been a pleasure to work with someone like Nico and a like-minded organisation that wants to achieve a common goal. We also thank Nico for introducing us to Tato – José Antonio Noriega – the Sporting Chairman who is extremely passionate about this partnership and has a great drive and determination to see this succeed. We also spent time with Manuel Filizola Flores – Chairman – who has achieved great things with Rayados and the direction he is taking the club is extremely impressive and we are excited to partner with him. Lastly, it was great to meet with their manager and former Argentina international Martin Demichelis. Martin had a fantastic career in the game playing over time 50 times for Argentina and playing in the 2014 World Cup Final. He also played at Manchester City and Bayern Munich where he won league titles.”
