Ledley reunited with Kickstart FC during Training Centre visit

Ledley King reunited with players from Indian football team Kickstart FC at a session held at the Club’s Training Centre in Enfield today (Thursday 20 June).

Kickstart FC is a premier football club and academy based in Karnataka, Bengaluru, dedicated to the development and promotion of football talent in India.

The Club agreed a partnership with Kickstart FC last year with the aim of supporting the development of local coaches and players in the region. As part of the announcement, Ledley and fellow Club legend Ossie Ardiles travelled to India to meet with Kickstart players, as well as fans and local community projects.

This week, our Global Football Development Programme has been running eight technical training sessions for Kickstart players, including interactive workshops on health and nutrition, strength and conditioning, as well as leadership.

Ledley reunited with the team during one of the 90-minute sessions, which included a series of attacking vs defending drills for 10 players from the Kickstart Academy.

Ledley said: “This is a great opportunity for these young players. It is their first time in England, and I have been struck by how eager they have been to learn and get as much information as they can. I really enjoyed seeing some of the players I met in India again, and it was a pleasure to host them at our Training Centre and give them some advice on what goes into becoming a professional player.”

Laxman Bhattarai, Head Coach at Kickstart FC, said: “These players have been training for six or seven years now, but the small details they have learned from being at Tottenham Hotspur is going to help them a lot. They are very blessed to be training at these amazing facilities.

“When we started Kickstart, we dreamt of becoming one of the best, and this partnership with Tottenham Hotspur is going to help us greatly in achieving that objective.”

Shekar Rajan, Founder & Chairman at Kickstart FC, added: “This is an amazing programme the club has put together for us. These kids have been dreaming of coming here, and to experience something like this has been brilliant. The respect the Club has given us has been very special, it feels like home for us.”

This was the first of many planned Kickstart visits to the club, with the objective to provide a world class training experience for the players.

Our Global Football Development teams will be visiting India later this summer, with technical staff based in Bengaluru continuing to assist Kickstart FC in aligning its training methods to those of the Tottenham Hotspur Academy.

Chris Acaster, Head of Global Coaching for Tottenham Hotspur, said: “We have thoroughly enjoyed hosting players from Kickstart FC at our Training Centre, and it is great to see the partnership continue to go from strength to strength. Our team are very much looking forward to visiting Bengaluru later this month to continue to help develop football talent in the region. This is another significant moment in the growth of our Global Football Development Programme.”

The Global Football Development team impact circa 45,000 players and coaches annually across the world and demonstrates year-on-year growth.

Technical sessions are delivered by our FA and UEFA-qualified coaches who take inspiration from our Men’s and Women’s First Team training methods to help develop every player that takes part on our programmes.