Belén Morán, a member of the Spanish taekwondo national team, graduates from the Blended Master in Sport Marketing and Management (Barcelona) with honors in a year of personal and sporting improvement
A professional sports career is born from talent and is developed based on effort, discipline, individual and team work, humility, resilience and a very good planning, with short, medium and long term goals. All these ingredients have made Belén Morán the star of the Spanish taekwondo national team in the <73 kg category, the only Andalusian in the Grand Prix Series (competitions of the highest international level in which only the 32 best in the world in each Olympic category can participate), and have led her to position herself among the favorites to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
At only 25 years old, Belén is a reference in this martial arts discipline and an example to follow for all those young athletes who neglect that ultimate long-term goal, that of their life beyond medals. “Johan Cruyff Institute’s Blended Master in Sport Marketing and Management (Barcelona) is very well organized to make everything compatible. It has allowed me not only to follow the classes while competing in another part of the world, but also to get good grades. Competition and travel are no excuse for not taking a master’s degree. It’s a perfect program,” says Belén.
The Sevillian, currently residing at the CAR of Sant Cugat (Sant Cugat high performance center) as an elite athlete, has seen her expectations exceeded during the program. Her training in sport management, coupled with her degree in psychology, will allow her to manage (when she decides the time has come) the taekwondo school run successfully by her father in Seville. “We have always gone hand in hand. I am closely linked to the school, although now I can’t be because I am in Barcelona and still active. I decided to do the master’s degree because after graduating in psychology I started to think more about my future, how I wanted to finish my sports career and what would come next. I would like to manage my father’s taekwondo school,” she says.
“I decided to do the master’s degree because after graduating in psychology I started to think more about my future. I would like to manage my father’s taekwondo school”
They will welcome her with open arms and are eager to incorporate her fresh ideas. “I’ve been involved with the school since I was a child, I have a lot of contact with the athletes, the coaches and the parents of the students. I’m not quite there yet, but it’s my goal,” Belén says assuredly. Her schedule of training, travel and competition has not prevented her from following the program regularly. “The blended format, with in-person classes on Fridays and online sessions on Thursdays, has been perfect. I have been competing in Las Vegas, for example, and watching the classes because they broadcast them live and then left them recorded on the virtual campus once the class was over so I could watch it whenever I could. For me, that has been a super positive point that for example, and watching the classes because they broadcast them live and then left them recorded on the virtual campus once the class was over so I could watch it whenever I could. For me, that has been a super positive point that has allowed me to keep up to date.”
“The blended format has been perfect. I have been competing in Las Vegas, for example, and watching the classes because they broadcast them live and then left them recorded on the virtual campus. It has allowed me to keep up to date”
Belén currently resides at the Sant Cugat High Performance Center.
Belén has discovered a world of which she was unaware, even though she is a professional athlete. “It is a master’s degree specialized in sport management, with many visits to leading facilities, a high level of classmates and professors, all of them industry professionals, a wide range of internships, you make many contacts…. I think it is very positive how Johan Cruyff Institute orients it to provide a professional outlet in the field in which you are looking for, both in sport management and facilities management, events, marketing or sponsorship. There is a lot in this master’s to take to the taekwondo industry and that I will be able to apply.”
“There is a lot in this master’s to take to the taekwondo industry and that I will be able to apply”
Belén would have loved to pack her bags, for once without her competition kimono, to experience a study trip to Amsterdam. I missed it at the last minute because the day before I had a competition and I broke my hand,” she explains. “But I participated in many other very interesting activities: the sports day at the beginning and end of the program; the Step Day, where you have interviews with companies in the sector; the visits, and other academic days with fellow students from other master’s programs, which are very enriching. We have all learned from our classmates and from the great professionals we have had as professors. In the end, I think it is very positive to have not only a teacher, but also a great figure from a football club or from any important facility who comes to tell you about his/her day to day because our teachers really are professionals in the industry. And that was very noticeable. The cases were super applied, practical and real. That was the part I liked the most.”
“It is very positive to have not only a teacher, but also a great figure from a football club or from any important facility who comes to tell you about his/her day to day; the cases were super applied, practical and real”
It has also been good for her to get out of the competitive environment and live with people from other sectors with the same aspirations in the business world. “There are many people who start a master’s degree and perhaps have doubts about the time they need to invest and whether they will be able to make it compatible. They may not be athletes, but they have a job and obligations to attend to and, if their goal is to get into the sports industry, the master’s degree is going to help them. If they have doubts, I’ll just say that I’ve been able to do it perfectly well while having an active sports career with a lot of traveling, and I think the situation is very similar to having a job or a family or any other commitments that might seem like an impediment to doing a master’s degree.”
