Cerebral palsy footballers share what it means to play for the Foundation at team’s first home tournament

Tottenham Hotspur Foundation has hosted its first cerebral palsy (CP) football tournament at Hotspur Way.

The seven-a-side event brought together CP teams from across the country, representing professional clubs including Brighton & Hove Albion, Colchester United, Norwich City, Sutton United and West Bromwich Albion.

It came less than a year since the Foundation established a Tottenham Hotspur CP team and three months on from the team’s first trophy.

CP is a heath condition affecting movement and coordination, primarily caused by a shortage of oxygen in parts of the brain before, during or soon after birth.

In CP football, players are assigned a classification, ranging from minimally impaired to significantly impaired, based on their range of movement and the location of their impairment. There is a limit on the number of players from each classification allowed on the pitch at any one time.

The Foundation team is run by programme coordinator John Abel and trains on Saturday mornings at Goffs Academy.

Here, players Joe, Sami and Christian share what the opportunity means...

Joe Quick

Joe, 30, is the team’s number one goalkeeper. His mental toughness on the pitch is born from his journey off it, with Joe in the 10-15% of people with CP who develop the condition after birth.

It was in 2003 when Joe, then eight, suffered a stroke. He was in a coma for two weeks and subsequently left with CP.

Joe would go on to play pan-disability football for 15 years. He then stopped playing after being diagnosed with testicular cancer.

Showing great strength in adversity, once again, Joe overcame the disease. His focus turned to working until the Foundation gave him the support and confidence to return to the game he loves.

He explained: “Playing CP football means everything to me. I used to play pan-disability football and it’s a bit harder because there can be players with fuller physicality, whereas everyone here’s on the same sort of level. It’s better for me and I enjoy it a lot more.

“Representing Tottenham Hotspur brings me a lot of pride. Everyone’s very supportive of each other here. Coach John knows we’ve got the potential and is working with us to slowly bring it out whilst we get used to playing together.”

When the team won their first trophy in March, Joe sat out the majority of the tournament, offering support for his understudy, 16-year-old Reks, having picked up a concussion making a brave block in the first match.

He said: “I just love making a save. It’s better than scoring a goal in my opinion. I haven’t won a lot of trophies, so it was nice to pick that one up.”

Joe added that the team were boosted by support from the Club.

“Spurs hosting these occasions is amazing. When else do you get to come to a Premier League training ground? You just wouldn’t get this chance anywhere else.”

Sami El-Kashef

Sami is a 46-year-old defender who represented the England CP team earlier in his career. He was playing pan-disability football until this opportunity to link up with the Foundation.

“It’s been a whirlwind reintroduction to CP football,” he said. “It means everything to play and the support’s been brilliant.

“At elite teams I’ve played for in the past, the mandate has been aggressiveness and ‘You’ve got to want it’. The draw here has been that it’s a really inclusive environment, where everybody appreciates their teammates’ disabilities.”

Sami played mainstream football until he was 18 and explained how CP football varies.

“Mobility is the main difference. When you’ve got CP and you’re tired, staying on your feet and keeping balance isn’t easy. In a mainstream game, it means you sink further behind on the pitch the more it goes on. When you’re younger, of course, that doesn’t have so much of an impact because of your natural energy, but obviously it starts to as you get older.”

Sami travels from West London to play and explained the difference it makes to have a professional club providing opportunities through its charitable arm.

“The draw of a club like Tottenham Hotspur means people will get out of bed and travel for opportunities like this. I feel absolutely proud and very motivated to do well.

“I certainly wouldn’t make the effort and the journey if I didn’t enjoy it, and I’d recommend anyone with CP to come along and get involved because it’s super fun.”

Christian McDonald

Christian, 32, got into football through the Foundation at the age of six. He went on to represent Northern Ireland over 100 times and was picked to represent Great Britain at the 2012 Paralympics in London, before returning to the Foundation upon the formation of its CP team.

The versatile defender explained what it meant back during the team’s first training session and said at the Hotspur Way tournament that the development of the team had been “absolutely fantastic”.

“We’ve learnt so much and winning our first trophy earlier this year was a great achievement for us.

“We’ve got a tight, unique family here. It brings a sense of belief that you can’t put a price on and that’s only boosted by the support of the Club through use of the training facilities here today.”

Anyone interested in finding out more about playing CP football with the Foundation can email John at john.abel@tottenhamhotspur.com.