Young football player smiles in the sunshine as he take a free kick

Last week we managed to catch up with Kelvin again to see how he was getting on.

Kelvin has started the UK university application process as he is hoping to get a place from September this year. He has made good use of the university advisors at IHM, getting a conditional offer before he had even arrived to complete his final course with us here. Kelvin speaks highly of the university counselling service as they have helped him understand everything he needs to know in order to come to decision about which university and which course will best suit him.

He had spent quite a bit of his time between courses volunteering at an international school in his home city of Nairobi. He got an excellent reference as a result of that and reading this it became apparent that Kelvin was well-suited to coaching younger players. That experience helped him to realise that he would really like to eventually have a career in sports coaching, management or marketing, so was incredibly useful.

But it hasn’t always been plain sailing for Kelvin. By his own admission when he first arrived in Manchester he didn’t immediately settle down and considered going home:

“The first few months were quite difficult. But afterwards, making friends, playing football and working at the same time, and also the host family, it made everything easier for me.”

panoramic view of the built up Manchester skyline at dawn with the sun rising.

Kelvin also has plenty of great things to say about Manchester, too, his adopted city.

“The city is amazing. I’m used to everything, transport, food as well and I’ve got friends here as well, I’ve got family here, so it’s an amazing city.”

But Kelvin is well-placed now to get the grades he needs to get onto his university course and if he continues to work hard he will achieve great things. He’s really motivated now he has settled on sports marketing as career and university course. Like he says; it’s a natural choice as he loves football and so wants to promote it. He wants to spread the word about football, that it’s a great game to play, to more people, both in different countries across the world and his home country of Kenya. Kelvin also has a great message to those players who sometimes doubt themselves and their ability to be successful:

“I want to let them know that this is a really great sport to play. And also for those people who think they can’t make it, I’d love to help them achieve their dreams.”

Kelvin is sure that he’s learnt a lot of things at IHM from the different coaches he has worked with and the different players he has met along the way. We wish Kelvin all the very best and look forward to catching up with him at university.