College to Kick Off New Football Academy

Keighley Campus, Leeds City College, is kicking off a new era for football in the town with the latest signing to its sport faculty – Leeds United youth coach and West Riding FA officer Pav Singh.

Pav will be joining the campus to help develop a new football coaching programme and football academy for September which will extend the success of the college’s well-established equivalent in Leeds.

The Leeds City College Football Academy will be entering its tenth year this September and has seen its popularity and success go from strength to strength, from an initial intake of 16 students in the first year to more than 100 which currently make up its six teams.

The Academy allows students to study a sport qualification, while benefitting from outstanding facilities and highly qualified coaching and sports science staff to help develop their football skills.

A number of the Academy players combine their studies at Leeds City College while playing semi-professional football with Farsley AFC’s first team and other non league teams. Two of the current players with Farsley recently played in a friendly against Leeds United first team, another two are currently in the England Colleges’ National Team and one former player, Emile Sinclair, has played for Nottingham Forest and is currently with Peterborough United.

Pav will be bringing a wealth of youth-coaching experience from previous roles with Bradford City FC and Bradford Council, as well as his ongoing positions with Leeds United as Under-14s Academy Coach and Coach Development Manager for West Riding FA.

He will be joining a passionate college team which already boasts former Leeds United player Mark Jackson.

He is keen to extend the success of the Leeds programme to Keighley and its surrounding areas: “I’m extremely excited to be involved in the development of the Football Academy and the coaching qualification at Keighley Campus. I know from experience there is a lot of untapped football talent in the area, and I’m looking forward to bringing my coaching expertise to the town to nurture that potential.”

Anthony Gallagher, Curriculum Area Manager for Sport at Leeds City College, said: “Pav will be joining a superb team and is the final piece of the jigsaw in helping us roll out this programme to young people in the area.”

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Press Contact
Kathy Sharpe
Marketing & PR Coordinator
Leeds City College
t: 0113 216 2561
e: katherine.sharpe@leedscitycollege.ac.uk