AFC Bournemouth duo Antoine Semenyo and Steve Fletcher were the star attractions at a special session of REIDsteel-sponsored Premier League Kicks in Christchurch.
Striker Semenyo and Cherries legend and first team coach Fletcher took part in the event at Mudeford Wood Community Centre.
The pair also conducted an enlightening question-and-answer session when Semenyo was asked about his maiden Premier League goal which came against Leeds.
Premier League Kicks offers free football and additional opportunities to more than 1,000 young people locally every year.
Sessions take place at Mudeford Wood Community Centre between 4pm and 5pm on Wednesdays for ages 8-10 and between 5pm and 6pm for ages 11-14. There is no pre-registration required as they all operate on a turn-up and play basis. Some 59 children have taken part since last October.
Donna Campo, operations director at REIDsteel, headed down to watch the session with colleagues Lisa Cherett, Lee Stevens and Peter Reid.
Donna said: “We have sponsored this campaign for the past season and a half, and we became involved because community is really at the heart of what we believe.
“Our factory has been on its site in Christchurch for the past 50-plus years. We were really keen to give an opportunity to young people locally to access football training sessions that they otherwise might not have been able to.
“We are keen to keep building our relationship with AFC Bournemouth. We have lots of supporters within the company so continuing that is a great opportunity for us.
“The Community Sports Trust has some wonderful initiatives and we’re really proud to be involved in this one, which certainly fits with our ethos and values as well.”
Donna added: “It was lovely to see the joy on the faces of all the young people at the session. It’s great that the initiative has been so successful in Christchurch.”
Semenyo, who signed for the Cherries from Bristol City in January, and Fletcher were joined at Mudeford Wood Community Centre by Steve Cuss and members of the AFC Bournemouth Community Sports Trust.
Steve said: “The Premier League Kicks project is one that’s really special to us.
“It enables a lot of youngsters to take part in recreational football, a first taste of football within an organised environment for many of them. We get lots of boys and girls turning up to enjoy their football.
“We try to have structure to the session. We have a fun warm-up and then we do some technical practice to try to improve the youngsters. We always have a game to finish which is always the highlight of the session.
“REIDsteel are a really strong partner of ours and they enable us to put on these sessions, so we are very grateful to them for their support.”
