Former Port Vale skipper Tom Conlon and current captain Nathan Smith has raised £20,000 for charity following an auction.
The pair set up the Pro Level Academy and the organisation’s first charity ball has raised the sum to offer disadvantaged youngsters professional coaching.
Pro Level Academy launched in 2021 but soon began providing some classes free of charge for children with disabilities, learning difficulties or those in care.
Tom Conlon told the BBC: “We started realising – what if you can’t afford this? What if you can’t get to training if you’re looking after your parents or your siblings? We thought: ‘why don’t we go down the charity route?'”
The former skipper says the results have been great adding: “We turn up to training at times and you’ve got a load of smiling faces there – not just Vale fans but Stoke fans, just local lads and girls that just love coming to train with us, and that is so rewarding.
“It’s not just them coming through the scheme and thinking they can improve in football, it’s more than that.”
These guys are amazing, along with their fantastic team of coaches they have developed a wonderful setup, which I have taken my Grandson to for well over two years. To see how much they have expanded in that time alone is just great, but now to add this new, important side to their Academy, just shows how much they care for their community. Congratulations to you all for this wonderful achievement which will now allow others the great coaching that everyone deserves.
Good luck, going forwards.