OHMYGOSSIP — Prince Harry played two-touch football with a youth group at a community sports centre in Leicester.
The 32-year-old royal impressed young footballers with his skills as he joined in with a game of two-touch football – which involves kicking a football over a volleyball net – during a visit to the Southfields Drive Support Centre in a deprived area of the city.
Whilst there, Prince Harry learned that the centre is under threat from council cuts, and met with young people who had gotten themselves into trouble because of a lack of things to do in the neighbourhood had pushed them toward crime.
The royal told the youths and local dignitaries gathered at the event: “It’s ridiculous because these small organisations are the ones that are making the biggest difference.
“You’ve just got to have that support – and that belief to have someone out there saying because you’re good you can go out there and do what you can.”
Prince Harry – who has worked with young people in the poorest parts of Nottingham for four years – also told the Pink Lizard youth group who hosted the event about the funding in other cities that has allowed for centres containing music studios, hair salons, sports complexes, and other facilities.
He said: “The gaping hole you are talking about, other cities have filled with funding.”
Ady Hinds, the managing director of Pink Lizard, now hopes Harry’s visit to the centre will have a positive impact on funding for the area.
And social work student Tendai Daire, 21, who partnered Harry in the football, has seen the benefits of taking part in community sport on the estate.
He said: “When we first moved here it wasn’t a good time. Our house was getting egged every day. People didn’t know us but then as we got involved it stopped.”