Donated football kits bring smiles to African kids’ faces

Donated football kits bring smiles to African kids’ faces
Players and coaches present Milton Colts FC kits in Dakar, Senegal

Over a hundred of football shirts were donated to youth football teams and children by players and coaches of a local football club on a recent visit to Dakar, capital of Senegal.

Full sets of kits were presented to a football school in a deprived area of the capital and many other kits were handed out in a small village through the Kits for Kids appeal launched by Cambridge resident and football coach Robert Coe.

The appeal was inspired when Mr. Coe was thinking of a use for the kit his Milton Colts under-10 team had grown out of.

“I was sorting through last year’s kit and I realised we can can take it with us on our trip to Senegal,” said Mr. Coe. “Then I asked other coaches and parents and it grew from there.”

The trip was funded by local company englishincambridge.com, provider of personalised English language programmes and Mr. Coe visited Dakar with his children Natasha and Joshua who both play for Milton Colts.

Ten full kits were collected of various sizes together with other teams’ shirts donated too. “Luckily we were just within our baggage allowance and the team’s sponsor A1 Taxis supplied transport to Gatwick Airport,” Mr. Coe explained.

“We stayed with a former English student of englishincambridge.com who put me in touch with Yatma Diop, a 73- year-old former Senegalese international who runs a football school in the run-down Medina neighbourhood of Dakar.”

L’ecole de football Yatma Diop runs coaching and teams for children from about 10 years old. Mr Diop also accommodates some of the young people at his house in Medina and has seen some players go on to represent Senegal at youth levels and play for leading Senegalese clubs.

Mr. Coe and his children also travelled to Zac Mbao, a village on the outskirts of Dakar, where they handed out more football shirts to children who were playing football on the streets. “Natasha and Joshua joined in with the game but it was delayed for a few minutes when a herd of cows walked down the street, so it gave us the perfect opportunity to meet the kids.”

Mr. Coe hopes to keep in touch Mr. Diop and plans to extend the appeal to other local clubs for his next visit.