The tournament was the first of its kind at the location, which sees a newly launched Street Reds session being held every Friday evening at the centre, in partnership with The University of Manchester.

Malik, 11, was one of the first participants to experience the newly launched Fallowfield Street Reds project and explained why he joined: “I came to the sessions because I enjoy football and love United; I wanted a good experience of playing football,” he said. “The tournament has been really good; I scored one goal and hit the post in one of our first games. Our coach, Kyle, has been really supportive and helped me learn loads of new stuff.”

Manchester United Foundation community cohesion coordinator, Martin Ingham, explained why the Foundation has chosen Fallowfield as its latest area for expanding the Street Reds project. He said, “The session in Fallowfield is in partnership with The University of Manchester and as a result we now have access to a really good and safe facility. Fallowfield is an area where there’s not a lot of provision for young people, so it’s great for the Foundation to get the chance to carry out our work here.”

Martin also explained the importance of running the tournament during the school holidays: “It’s a great opportunity as it gives the young people something to do during half-term and we don’t usually get the chance to bring our participants together. We have 14 Street Reds sites across the city so to bring young people together from Moss Side, Partington, Middleton and Stretford, which are all miles away from each other, is fantastic.”

Find out more about our free community football sessions in Fallowfield.