First Capital Connect kick starts young footballers’ careers

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First Capital Connect has donated train season tickets to five young football scholars starting their careers at the Stevenage Football Academy.

The Stevenage FC scholarship is a two-year course for 16 year olds wishing to aspire to become professional footballers. They work throughout the year dividing their time between studying and learning the skills required to become a professional footballer. At the end of the course they can be selected to play for Stevenage, move to another football club or look into becoming coaches.

Five of the students enrolled in the football scholarship live in the London area and are commuting to Hitchin everyday to the North Herts College where the scholars train. In order to help them to achieve their goal of becoming professional football players First Capital Connect has provided them with free travel.

To mark the donation a First Capital Connect team challenged the young footballers to a penalty shoot out and five-a-side match at North Herts College. The FCC team won the penalty shoot out however the football academy team commanded the five-a-side match and won 9-2.

Steve Castle, a train driver manager at First Capital Connect who took part in the football said:

“We are delighted to be able to help out the young footballers at Stevenage Football Academy as they look to start their careers in football. Our team had a great (but exhausting) time playing against the scholars and we were extremely impressed with their football skills. We wish them all the best for their future careers and will certainly look out for their names in the future.”

Jimmy Gilligan, Stevenage Football Academy’s Head of Youth, said:

“On behalf of the academy I would like to thank First Capital Connect for their generosity. The season tickets have made a real difference to the boys and I am pleased they were able to express their gratitude in person.”

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