FC Barcelona, who shut down all its academies in India this week 14 years after starting operations with an aim to train the country’s kids in their famed La Masia (youth academy) style, said they are looking for a new partner in the country.

“We would love to remain in India and we are looking to come back to India as soon as we can. We are searching for a new partner in order to be part of the Indian sports culture once again,” a club official said in an email reply to The Telegraph.

Barcelona’s four academies, in partnership with the Gurgaon-based Conscient Football at Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune, will cease to exist from July 1.

The official added that Conscient Football wanted a different project.

“The former partner (Conscient Football) wanted a different future project and we had another vision. We would like to keep the project with the four Barca Academies we had in India.”

Both Barca and their partner said there was no lack of interest among the youngsters and their families. “We didn’t have any issue with the kids. There was no lack of response from the families too,” the Barca official said.

Conscient Football said there were around 4000 active footballers enrolled with the four centres.