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Coerver® Coaching West Midlands Performance Academy Player Sam Khan has received an award on behalf of Chelsea Football Club prior to the clubs title winning game against Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge last month.
Sam (Pictured above, alongside the 2015 winners) has previously taken part in “Chelsea’s Asian Star”, an initiative aimed at addressing the lack of Asians in the English game, which invites 400 children to the club’s state-of-the-art training facility in Surrey on an annual basis to put them through their paces. Sam came second during his first attempt in 2009 and followed that up by winning the competition in his age category in 2011.
Sam’s mother Ruth explained her pride at Sam’s recognition “Chelsea FC were notified that they were to be presented before kick off against Crystal Palace in May, with an award for their continuing campaign and the recognition its received. Sam, having been an active participant and supporter of this campaign for the past 5 years, was asked if he would receive the award on behalf of Chelsea FC with the owner Roman Abramovich. What an absolute honour for Sam to be asked to do this. His Dad and I are overwhelmed by what he has achieved to date. Of all the people they could have asked, and they asked our Little SK.”
Sam spoke of the competition “I still have great memories of Asian Star, it gave me so much confidence knowing the coaches at Chelsea were impressed with me. The event is so well organised and every player has the chance to impress. My advice would be to give it everything you have but make sure you enjoy the day as that is when you play your best and it can give you a great opportunity in football.”
Sam was in attendance again this year to present trophies to the 2015 winners, which included another Coerver® Coaching West Midlands Performance Academy player Adam Ahmed who won the U9 category.
West Midlands Performance Academy Manager, Luke Cheyne, said of the honour “All at Coerver Coaching UK would like to congratulate Sam on this recognition. Sam works extremely hard within our Performance Academy programme, alongside playing for Nottingham Forest. He continues to develop technically on the pitch as well as mature off it. We are confident that should he keep up this level of dedication to his own development, he is destined for a very bright future. Well done Sam!”
Luke added “We have a number of players within our Performance Academy who currently play for professional clubs, and a number who have signed for professional clubs since being a part of the Coerver programme. We feel that the Performance Academy offers the perfect environment for young players to learn what it takes to make the step up into academy football”.
