Thursday the 25^th of October saw West Riding FA visit Leeds United’s Thorp Arch Training Ground with our Ces Ceasar Award winners Mani Salim of Phoenix Juniors & Majid Hussain of Athletico Juniors.

Ces was a prominent coach and FA Coach Mentor in West Yorkshire, who worked for Leeds United’s Academy developing young players of the future.

His passion was working in diverse communities and ensuring all players were given the best opportunity to fulfil their potential, regardless of their background.

He unfortunately passed away over a year ago and the Ces Ceasar Award in conjunction with Leeds United was in his memory.

People in West Riding were asked to identify coaches who had demonstrated a similar passion for working in diverse communities and supporting young players, and Ces’s wife Jayne selected the following winners for the inaugural award:

• Majid Hussain (Athletico Juniors FC)
• Shazad Bashir (Fairbank United)
• Mani Salim (Phoenix Juniors)

The award winners will get direct mentoring from Leeds United Academy coaches alongside coach education bursaries.

Leeds United staff will also visit the clubs where the coaches currently work and support the development of other coaches and players within the club.

Majid Hussain said, “It’s a dream come true having such wonderful access to the club. The coaches were fantastic and were really enthusiastic about helping us and learning more about what we do. There’s a great environment at the Academy so it’s great to be a part of it”.

Asad Qureshi, Football Development Officer (Inclusion), who set up the award, said “Ces influenced so many people over the years and everywhere you go, people talk about him in such a positive way. Leeds United have been superb and Adam Underwood, Academy Manager, and Richard Cresswell, Head of Coaching, have been so supportive throughout and are really passionate about using the resources of the Academy to help grassroots so we are looking at additional ways we can work together to do this. It will be great to watch the award winners develop over the season and I’m certain Ces would be happy to see the work going on”.