SPAIN trip for thanksgiving 2025
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Anonymous
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My kid has been asked to go to Spain with a team of kids. Not his club team but a team that was put together for a specific tournament. Any one do this? Good or bad experience.
We have no committed yet. |
Anonymous
| What club? We have done a Spain trip during Thanksgiving but not sure if it is the same one. |
Anonymous
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Just consider the cost and age of your kid. Also, will your kid get to play with and against other kid his own age?
We were invited to go play in the Sweden in the Gothic Cup this summer. But it was about $5600 for my 11 year old and easily $3k per adult. We also found out, she would have been placed on a team playing in the U14 age group. As they have to combine multiple age groups to get a team together. We decided to not splurge so much on an 11 year old, and we found another club who has more participants so she could play u12 next summer with the other 12 year olds for example. We may even wait until she is 13 to do it, as that is a hard event to top. Just consider the total cost and if your kid will participate in age appropriate matches. And are you blowing a ton of money on your 10 year old? Maybe its worth it? |
Anonymous
| A trip to Europe a great experience for a young person and adults too. Just don’t think it means your kid is a soccer star or will become better at soccer because of a week abroad. If you can afford it why not? |
Anonymous
It all depends on the organization doing it whether good or bad. Who is the team? What is the tournament? |
Anonymous
They send out those Gothia Cup invites like publishers clearing house mail lol and whoever can foot the bill will go. Need to keep expectations realistic as far as what your kid will gain from it besides the experience. Got a friend who's taking their kid who plays on like the 4th tier team thinking he's getting recruited for the National team 🤣. |
Anonymous
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This is so vague that it's hard to give an opinion, but I'll be a hero and give my opinion.
What is the end goal? Is your kid good enough to stand out in a European tournament? If yes, you should go. If no, then maybe find some opportunities to play good competition closer to home and see what your kid is made of. For virtually every kid that goes on these expensive trips (close to $10k when all said and done) nothing will come of it other than a neat experience. Are you rich? Go for it. You want to go to Spain? Go for it. Just don't expect anything soccer related to come from it. |
Anonymous
| Parent wants to take their kid to play soccer and people on here want to criticize because they think they want their kid to go pro. Ha! |
Anonymous
| Our DS was invited to a couple tournaments in Spain by a Nordic club (his coach had a connection). He was the only American - rest of the kids were Norwegian/Swedish or from Brazil I think. They did 2 different tournaments in 2 different cities around Barcelona. He had a great time, was definitely a good experience and he is still in touch with a couple of the kids. The club invited him the next year to a different tournament in Latvia (right before COVID), so he was able to get a couple good trips. |
Anonymous
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This is pointless until additional details are provided as the OP asked whether any one has experience with a tournament in Spain during Thanksgiving.
Overall, if you have a high-level player, the sooner you go overseas, the sooner you will give them a reality check. The majority of American’s are marks for these opportunities but there are several organizations, tournaments and trips that I would recommend that are low-cost and really valuable. |
Anonymous
I personally am criticizing the parents that I know that does think their kid is going pro after an "invite" like this. I tried to tell em most of these are good experiences but it's definitely a money grab cuz if you're kid can't even sniff the top two or 3 teams from their club why would they be so "special" to play in a European tournament that my kid has been getting offers from since 9 years old. |
Anonymous
| Just like college mailing you are getting this because of your zip code or soccer club's zip code not becusae your kid is a player |
Anonymous
To many parents, this stuff is confusing. There are multiple posts on this very topic each year. These trips are wonderfully fun things to do for families who can afford it. The way some of these invites are worded makes it confusing. Most people view this opportunity for what it is and very few, initially uninformed, families might think it could be a special gateway to European soccer. To the OP. I don’t know who has done that one. But as the PP said, ask if they will field a team for your kid’s age group. |
Anonymous
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[quote=Anonymous]My kid has been asked to go to Spain with a team of kids. Not his club team but a team that was put together for a specific tournament. Any one do this? Good or bad experience.
We have no committed yet. [/quote] Only if it is a strong team, otherwise it’s a waste of money, and you will end up losing every game. I would take a good look at every player that was invited to participate |
Anonymous
| What part of Spain and How much is the trip? Maybe make a longer trip out if it so you can enjoy too. |