In a heartwarming video, Alejandro Garnacho and fred can be seen surprising students at Manchester United Foundation partner school Loreto in Chorlton, in a community visit at the end of the 2022/23 season.
Garnacho and Fred met with Loreto school staff, including Romone, the Foundation’s High School Partnership officer, before participating in a variety of school lessons with excited students. Alejandro began his visit by getting involved in a Spanish lesson, before joining Fred in a Q&A workshop with sports leaders in the library. The pair then headed outside to take part in PE lessons, playing football and joining a girls' rounders game, much to the enjoyment of the students.
The players spent over an hour interacting with students and teachers at the school, where they engaged with more than 100 pupils.
In his first external school as a senior player, Alejandro expressed his joy at getting out into the local community: “I really enjoyed meeting everyone on my first visit to a Foundation school and learning more about the important programmes that they have for the community.
“It was great to join the Spanish class to talk about the importance of languages and how I’ve worked on my English.”
Fred also enjoyed interacting with students during a visit that saw him receive the PFA Community Champion trophy. He said: “I’ve enjoyed it a lot being here at Loreto today. It was really nice to be able to meet the kids and talk with them – it’s important for us to be able to do that and support what the Foundation does.
“It was good to see them asking lots of questions and showing their confidence on the pitch too. Hopefully us being here today can inspire them a little bit to continue working hard.”
Overwhelmed with emotion, one pupil, Malikye, 14, couldn’t believe that the visit had taken place: “It made me feel excited because, obviously, you watch them on TV and you don't really expect them to come into your school and have a little talk with you.
“At first, I was just a bit starstruck. United is my whole heart – growing up I was a United fan and I’ve never looked back since.”
Manchester United Foundation has partnerships with 66 primary, secondary and special educational needs schools, as well as working alongside the Salford City College Group on a further education programme in sport.
Working predominantly across all 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester, but recently expanding to Carlisle, Derbyshire, London and Derry/Londonderry, a coach is based in the school full-time to work with pupils, feeder primary schools and within the local community, in order to build meaningful, lasting relationships.
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