In celebration of National School Sport Week, children from Manchester United Foundation’s partner primary schools were invited to United’s Aon Training Complex to take part in some football activities, but little did they know a group of first-team players would be joining them for some ‘sports day’ fun.

The nine- and 10-year-olds delighted in challenging Luke Shaw, Andreas Pereira, Diogo Dalot, Sergio Romero, Matteo Darmian and Marcos Rojo to sack races, egg and spoon races and parachute games. The children also got the opportunity to take penalty shoot outs, and ask their footballing heroes questions about their careers.

Michael from All Saints primary school said, “I’ve always wanted to be a footballer, and even more so after today. My favourite bit was talking to the players and seeing what they did when they children, and what’s their favourite thing to do now. Because I’m a United fan it means a lot to me.”

The day also had an impact on Katie from All Saints primary school; she said, “My family are big United fans so it made me feel very excited when the players joined us.” 

The National School Sport Week initiative encourage's more young people to get active and participate in sport at school, as well as physical activity in general. Manchester United Foundation delivers dedicated programmes in primary schools across Greater Manchester with the aim to develop and improve the life skills of children aged 5-11 as they embark on a path towards secondary education. In 2017/18 the Foundation engaged with 5,178 primary school pupils through physical literacy, healthy eating, reading and disability awareness in association with the national Premier League Primary Stars Initiative.