PAUL Kelly thought a life in football was over when a serious knee injury at 16 threatened his prospects with Manchester Boys.
His dad, 'in a typical Irish family, told him to get a 'proper job' and he started a bricklaying apprenticeship with Manchester City council while he still had a splint on his leg.
His career was destined to be on building sites in Beswick but instead he coaches football in Beswick instead.
Kelly thought he was rediscovering his love for the game when he was asked by a woman at the council to help out with a session at a youth club in Wythenshawe.
What he didn't know was that it would spark his passion for working with the disabled community that started off with three special schools in the area and now covers 87 including competition leagues at primary, secondary, and all-girls level.
"She said the club would close in six weeks if it didn't turn around so I got off my bum and started speaking to people at bus stops and Googling special schools and within six weeks we had over 40 kids there," Kelly told the Manchester Evening News.
"Someone at City heard about what I'd done and asked if I'd volunteer at City.
"We were having six to eight kids at a junior session on Denmark Road on a Monday and then it doubled and we outgrew the facility and had to move to Nicholls Campus in Openshaw.
Then sudden we got this amazing CFA and we were integrated into this amazing facility where previously there was no room at Platt Lane or Carrington for the community programmes.
"Now we were integrated and on the same pitches as the first teams.
"We went from the outhouse to the penthouse.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 16, 2024 من Manchester Evening News.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 16, 2024 من Manchester Evening News.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
We defended like U15s - Silva
MANCHESTER City defended like under-15s and totally deserved their derby defeat yesterday, a scathing Bernardo Silva said.
Worse than I could imagine'
PEP INSISTS HE'S THE MAN TO TURN IT AROUND
Picking up the pieces
UNITED FIGHT BACK FOR DRAMATIC DERBY VICTORY
Amorim: We'll be careful with match-winner
UNITED WILL PROTECT YOUNG STAR AMAD AND LET HIM CONTINUE PROGRESS
'Lifestyle choices' behind duo's exclusion - Amorim
RUBEN Amorim suggested clothing and lifestyle choices contributed to Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho's exclusions from the Manchester United squad against Manchester City.
Top doctors fear 'danger normalised'
LEADING emergency doctors have expressed concern about a new guide on how to treat patients in corridors, saying it is \"normalising the dangerous\" NHS England has produced guidance on \"providing safe and good quality care in temporary escalation spaces\".
Syria's tentative hope
SYRIA is taking its first steps in the post-Assad era as its people come to terms with life under new rulers, writes AP's Sarah El Deeb.
'Moral responsibility to tackle the boats'
THE Home Secretary said the Government has a moral responsibility to tackle the small boats crisis, but refused to say when the number of people arriving over the English Channel will decline.
Israel to shut embassy
ISRAEL will close its embassy in Dublin in light of \"the extreme anti-Israel policies of the Irish government\", foreign minister Gideon Saar has said, accusing the country of \"crossing every red line\".
That's an 'L' of a pass rate!
AREAS MOST LIKELY TO GRANT LICENCE
