SPANISH soccer giant Real Madrid has teamed up with local education authorities to officially open a training center in Shanghai yesterday.

The Real Madrid Foundation launched a training center at the Shanghai campus of an international school, American University High School, in Minhang District — the Spanish and European champion’s first training center in China.

The foundation will select 200 boys and girls between the ages of 7 and 17 for a two-week-long training project to be held in late June and August. Real Madrid will open two more training centers in Beijing and Chengdu later this month.