Action-packed fun for Primary Star Ilia

Leeds United first-team midfielder Ilia Gruev recently dropped by a local school to get involved in a fun-filled PE lesson and take part in a question-and-answer session.

Delivered by the Leeds United Foundation as part of the Premier League Primary Stars initiative, students at Manston St James Primary Academy enjoyed a memorable afternoon taught by coaches from the club’s official charity, with guest star Ilia making an appearance.

The Bulgarian international supported the Year 5 pupils with their football drills, before taking the time to answer questions about his background, his inspirations and his motivations, also offering advice on achieving dreams, and before leaving he also made sure to spend time signing shirts and posing for photos!

Speaking after the session, with a smile beaming across his face, Gruev told LUTV how happy he was with how the afternoon had unfolded.

“It was a great time, and I enjoyed it a lot,” the 24-year-old said. “I know when I was young, what a big thing this would have been for me having a professional footballer come to speak to me and give me attention. I love it because you can see the smiles on the kids’ faces and this is the best feeling.

“It is very important that we try inspire young people to do what they love and give them contact with athletes who play for a club like Leeds. I think I made their day, but they made my day also! For both, it is good!

“Some kids were really confident which I liked – I think it is unusual in this age group. There were some really nice questions, and I was proud of them!”

Premier League Primary Stars uses the power of football to provide schools in the community access to free, inspiring curriculum-linked resources that bring lessons to life, supporting PSHE, health and wellbeing, PE, English and Maths.

Sessions delivered like the one at Manston are part of an ongoing programme of involvement from the Foundation, helping to inspire teachers and provide them with the resources to promote positivity through PE lessons, according to Premier League Primary Stars Co-Ordinator Angus Hall.

“We want young people to feel ambitious and having Ilia come in will be such a great memory for them. Hopefully, they will feel even more inspired and come away from the session knowing that there is a pathway and as a club and as a city, we are massively connected.

“We have been working with Manston for quite a while. We want staff to feel comfortable and confident in delivering lessons and we want pupils to come away feeling ambitious, inspired and connected.

“The pupils showed such great maturity. I was impressed by the quality of the questions and I think when you have that many versatile questions, not only did it give them a good opportunity to speak and interact with Ilia, but the questions they asked meant that his answers were also really valuable and useful for them, away from school as well. It will be long-lasting for them.”

Emma Prest, Year 6 teacher and co-PE lead, added: “The kids have been really excited and there has been a real buzz around the school for the last couple of days since they found out. A couple of them said it was better than Christmas, so I don’t think they slept much last night!

“We have got quite a lot of children who play for grassroots teams outside of school, so I think it just shows them that football players are normal people, and we have also had quite a few children who don’t play football show a real interest in the last few days, inspiring them to get involved, not just in football but in sport in general and showing them they can achieve their dreams.”

More information about Premier League Primary Stars can be found HERE.