Football Partnership Scores a Success

Leeds City College and Street Work Soccer have teamed up with Manchester City Football Club to run a weekly football centre in East Leeds for local young footballers aged between 6-18 years.

The project was set up to help engage the younger members of the community in sport and education through the beautiful game of football. And it has gone from strength to strength since its establishment six months ago with over 2,000 youngsters now involved in the project – and in addition to that, it is celebrating it’s first signing to the world famous Manchester City Football Academy.

Talented local young player 13-year-old Aron Tesfay is now a member of it’s under 13s Academy squad.

Aron’s progress illustrates exactly what the project is hoping to achieve – providing opportunities for inner city youngsters and nurturing their interest in both education and sport.

All three organisations provide key components for the success of the project, as well as having staff directly involved.

Weekly training sessions are held at the College’s community sports centre at its Thomas Danby Campus. Street Work Soccer, which has been running for over 15 years, providing highly professional football coaching programmes to young people in Leeds and the surrounding areas, teams up with Manchester City coaches to work with all age groups at the football coaching sessions.

Running alongside the sport is an education element which the College provides. Staff from the sport and community teams provide help and advice to young players and their parents about the variety of learning opportunities and appropriate progression routes available to them in conjunction with local schools.

The project also aims to support and nurture those talented young players within inner city areas, who may have struggled to access professional help in developing their talent – and the involvement of Manchester City provides just that. Aron, who is originally from Eritrea in Africa and now lives in Lincoln Green with his uncle, was spotted while playing at the College at a Street Work Soccer session.

By coming together, the College, Manchester City and Street Work Soccer hope to help address the issue of social inclusion, providing an alternative and appropriate leisure opportunity for inner city youngsters while helping to promote and engage them in education.

“What this project does is help channel young people’s energy into sport as opposed to less anti-social activities; the continued success of this project means the future looks bright for young players in the Leeds inner city area,” said Paz Shan, Director of Street Work Soccer.

Dawn Craven, Curriculum Manager for Sport & Fitness at Leeds City College said: “It is about presenting opportunities to young people – not all of these players will be lucky enough to pursue a professional career but they can build a successful career through education and we provide the options at looking to achieve that.”

Manchester City Yorkshire Regional Recruitment Officer Dave Harrison said: “Hopefully Aron will be the first of many talented young players to come through this project.”

“We are now looking forward to continuing to work with the Street Work Soccer and Leeds City College, which has provided the perfect venue for this partnership and for coaching talented and enthusiastic players.”

Leeds City College Sport & Fitness

Press Contact
Sarah Towns
PR & Communications Co-ordinator
Leeds City College
t: 0113 284 6411
e: sarah.towns@leedscitycollege.ac.uk