Apply yourself and you can succeed, footballer Stephen O’Donnell tells teenagers

The Motherwell captain visited a Street League session helping young people boost their job prospects.

Scotland player Stephen O’Donnell visited a Street League session (Andrew Milligan/PA) (PA Archive)

International footballer Stephen O’Donnell has told young people on a transformational programme based around the sport that he is a prime example of how applying yourself can take you to unexpected heights.

The Scotland defender visited a Street League session in Shawlands, Glasgow, as the charity continues to help thousands of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds boost their employment prospects and education.

The 29-year-old Motherwell captain, who has played 24 times for Scotland, said it was “amazing” to hear what difference the initiative has already made to the children present.

Street League’s Transforming Lives project works with up to 500 S4 and S5 school pupils from parts of Scotland most at risk of future unemployment, and has bases in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Ayrshire, Edinburgh and Dundee.

The former Partick Thistle, Luton Town and Kilmarnock player told the PA news agency: “That’s the great thing about football that makes the game so special, it’s for everyone. You come down here with kids of all different backgrounds and it gives them a togetherness and something to smile about.

I have not been particularly blessed with huge amounts of ability but I have applied myself in my career and I have turned out to have a good one so far

Stephen O'Donnell

“It’s been a real tough couple of years for everyone and affected people in different ways, and it’s so crucial that we keep these charities going to give people who need help most an opportunity to do better.

“Hopefully I can show that anything can happen if you apply yourself. I have not been particularly blessed with huge amounts of ability but I have applied myself in my career and I have turned out to have a good one so far.

“That’s hopefully something these kids can learn from and maybe go on to do positive things in any aspect of life.”

The project has recently benefited from funding by the ScottishPower Foundation to help it build on work already achieved in helping thousands of young people – including European champion boxer Lee McGregor.

The charity’s head of operations for Scotland, Steven Jardine, said: “I have been at Street League for 10 years and there’s a young lad that was in our first ever academy who is now self-employed, married, mortgage.

“Sometimes programmes get a bit difficult, young people can be challenging, but we know our model works.

“Another great example is the boxer Lee McGregor, who is an ex-participant and is now looking to be challenging for world titles.

“Lee was on our programme in about 2013 when he left school in Edinburgh. He progressed to a modern apprenticeship and fortunately his boxing career took off.

“He has kept in contact and for his last fight last week he had the Street League logo on his training kit.”

About 1,500 young people in 16 Scottish local authority areas go through Street League programmes each year and there are plans to take the initiative further north.

“We use football, predominately, to engage young people who are finding themselves unemployed or at risk of leaving school not achieving their academic potential,” Mr Jardine added.

“We get them to come along to programmes for 20 hours a week and get them to take part in group work activity, employability and personal development skills and twin that with a bit of sport. So we take them outside and focus on things like team work, communication and leadership.

“That’s the engagement tool, as we call it. We know that these young guys and girls want to take part in sport and it allows us to start working on key employability skills as well.

“We work towards a 55% employment target. We want young people to leave our programme and find sustainable employment.

“If not, we want them to get into modern apprenticeships or further education and training in a sector they want to work in, most commonly retail, sport and fitness and we are now moving into warehouse and logistics.”