Club Atlético Osasuna is the first football club to obtain the seal of 'Excellence in the training of young athletes,' awarded by AENOR, a leading certifying entity in the generation of trust. After the audit, AENOR informed the Navarre entity of the certification awarding. The official delivery of the certificate will take place on December 21, before the start of the next match at El Sadar.

Osasuna's evaluation included 80 different criteria that influence the training process of young footballers. Each criterion was divided into five areas: structure and development of professionals, infrastructures and resources, training model and transfer to competition, integral attention to the player, and development and transition to professional football. These indicators are included in the 'Tajonar Method' project, whose cornerstone is the player's training in seven dimensions: sports, academic, social, psychological, emotional, human, and health.

The club president, Luis Sabalza, highlights the importance of obtaining the certificate for Osasuna: "It is essential for any club to have a seal of excellence awarded to them, but especially for our club like Osasuna, who is always looking at its academy. Throughout history, we have been known as one of Europe's best youth academies, now validated by an entity of recognized prestige, such as AENOR. It is worth noting that, after the crisis we suffered in 2014, we had to rebuild our academy and place it again as a benchmark. Since Navarre is not one of the communities with the most inhabitants, it is necessary to compensate for this disadvantage in quantity with quality in training our talents. We must take the next step to achieve facilities that match our training model through the 'Futuro Tajonar' project."

The director of the Atlantic Region of AENOR, Martín Pita, wanted to highlight "the long and outstanding contribution of Osasuna to Spanish football through its youth academy, is something that is now confirmed by obtaining the AENOR certification of 'Excellence for the comprehensive training of young athletes,' thanks to the 'Tajonar Method' project. In addition, with this certification, Osasuna demonstrates most effectively to all its stakeholders its commitment to good practices in training minors and adolescents, sending a message of confidence to all young people who aspire to develop professionally in football. The Navarrese team has become a reference for its social sustainability policy."

Tajonar: from reconstruction to the vanguard

'Tajonar Method' is the project with which Osasuna has been working its youth academy since 2021. This season, it is facing its fourth and final phase – the primary interventions lie in the consolidation of the team and professionalization of the structure, the implementation of a framework for the protection of minors that has already been put into practice, and the optimization of the processes already implemented in recent seasons. This project succeeded 'Tajonar 2017,' the first project implemented under the Sabalza presidency to rebuild a youth academy that had suffered severely from the 2014 crisis caused by the mismanagement of previous administrations. Under 'Tajonar 2017,' one of the first actions would be the appointment of Ángel Alcalde as director of Tajonar, and later Patxi Puñal, the player with the most appearances in Osasuna history, would join as the technical director of youth football.

AENOR, one of the world's most trustworthy certifying companies

AENOR contributes to the transformation of society by creating trust between organizations and people through conformity assessment services (certification, inspection, and testing), training, information, and business transformation consultancy. It is the leading entity in generating trust in Spain; more than 88,000 workplaces worldwide have one of AENOR's certificates in fields such as Quality Management, Sustainability, Verification of Non-Financial Information, Animal Welfare, Occupational Health and Safety, Digitalization or Compliance.

Among AENOR's differential competitive advantages are the highest brand recognition among companies (B2B) and consumers (B2C); having its staff allows it to manage the accumulated knowledge for the benefit of its clients; innovating in the resolution of new competitiveness gaps thanks to its proximity to the sources of knowledge; and its geographical and industry reach. AENOR is a global entity with operations in 87 countries.

Spain has 19 offices in all the Autonomous Communities with its auditors and a permanent presence in 12 other countries, mainly Latin America and Europe.