A TAMESIDE College student is now coaching girls at Manchester United Foundation after she was inspired to take up football.
Yasmeen Zaman started playing when she was nine years old but, when she became a teenager, she had to stop due to a shortage of girls teams.
Meeting a coach from the Premier League club’s charitable arm at her secondary school Great Academy Ashton changed that as she was introduced to the Premier League Kicks programme.
“When I was younger, there were challenges of not having the opportunity to play and not having role models of my religion and culture,” Yasmeen told the Premier League.
“I joined Premier League Kicks mainly to just play football. We were able to have a kickabout, I was meeting new people and talking with the coaches. It was such a positive environment.”
In 2023, Yasmeen was selected by the Association of Colleges Sport to take part in their ‘Rising Leader Programme’ – which aims to support young black, Asian and ethnic minority females to take up a career in sport or a related role by helping them to build communication and leadership skills, motivate them to achieve and train them to plan and deliver various activities.
Yasmeen, a Level 3 Sports student at Tameside College, also plays in the Ashton-based college’s women’s team and began as a volunteer coach at Manchester United Foundation before gaining employment last year when she turned 18.
Since joining, she’s taken coaching and leadership courses and was one of the Foundation’s representatives at last year’s Munich Air Disaster commemorations in Germany.
In her job as a casual coach, Yasmeen is a role model to the next generation of aspiring footballers and coaches.
“My head coach at school got me leading sessions and that helped increase my confidence so that I would be willing to try new pathways,” Yasmeen said.
“I have definitely changed as a person. I never used to talk to anyone, especially to people I didn’t know. I am proud because I was a very shy kid, I didn’t want to do anything. It’s been a long journey.”