Izan Almansa, after winning the U19 World Championship with the Spanish national team last June, returned to the Region of Murcia to complete his studies at the Universidad Católica, where he enrolled in the online Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, using the sports tutoring model designed by this university and the Spanish National Olympic Committee, which is an international benchmark.

The player held a meeting with María Dolores García, UCAM president, this morning at the UCAM Sports Center. The meeting was attended by academic and sporting directors of the University. Izan Almansa said he was ‘very grateful to UCAM for giving me the opportunity to study here. It opens a new stage in my life, also in terms of education and I am sure that I will be able to organise my schedule to study almost every day.’

For her part, the UCAM president stressed that ‘the fact that he decided to continue his education with us, even though he is so successful, is wonderful.’

The Murcian will join a group of elite athletes who chose to combine their studies at UCAM with the highest level of sports. Some examples are the swimmer and Olympic champion Mireia Belmonte (Bachelor’s Degree in Advertising and Public Relations), the handball world champion Gedeón Guardiola (Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology), the Paralympic athletics champion Gerard Descarrega and the Olympic basketball runner-up Lucy Pascua (both graduated this year in the Master's Degree in General Health Psychology), as well as the Olympic and world taekwondo champion Joel González (PhD in Criminology).

The Dual Career model launched by José Luis Mendoza with the UCAM foundation allows for tutored university training adapted to elite athletes, and was reinforced in 2012, following its agreement with the Spanish National Olympic Committee, chaired by Alejandro Blanco. This model is currently an international benchmark with a great number of awards from academic and sporting institutions.

The aim of this programme is to enable athletes to continue competing at their highest level and to progress in their university studies at the same time. Pablo Rosique, General Director of Sports at UCAM, praised the joining of Almansa, emphasising that ‘we will adapt to the situation of an athlete like Izan, with an unbeatable online structure which allows him to pursue his studies from anywhere in the world, with the help of his tutor.’

Izan Almansa (18 years old) started his career in the UCAM Murcia youth academy, from which he left in 2019 to join Real Madrid and then the Overtime Elite Academy in Atlanta (USA). He is currently part of the NBA project called G League Ignite and was the best player of the U17 World Cup, U18 Eurobasket champion and U19 World Cup champion with the Spanish National Team, having also been elected MVP in the last two tournaments. He is expected to be among the first-round picks in the upcoming NBA Draft, where several teams have expressed interest in having him in their ranks.