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Professional footballer attends launch event for Usborne’s Football Skills
Authors Katie Daynes and Simon Tudhope update Football Skills for a new generation of footballers
On the 6th June, Usborne held a launch event for our new title, Football Skills. The book is an exciting new title, replacing our previous Football Skills book. Katie Daynes has co-authored the title alongside Simon Tudhope; Katie maintains our longstanding relationship with Show Racism the Red Card, the UK’s leading anti-racism charity, which was established in 1996 by ex-Newcastle United goalkeeper, Shaka Hislop.
Image credit: Alexandra Johnson
What’s inside Football Skills?
Football Skills features photographs of real young players from Leicestershire’s Oadby Owls Football Club, an England accredited grassroots football club. The book shows these young players demonstrating skills such as how to tackle and was filmed on location at Leicestershire and Rutland County Football Association’s Holmes Park ground, which is where Thursday’s launch was also held.
Naomi Bedeau makes a special guest appearance
The book launch celebrated not only the release of the book, but also the young players, who came along with their families. Naomi Bedeau, who currently plays for Nottingham Forest Ladies and is a Show Racism the Red Card patron, was invited as a special guest. The designer of the book, Krysia Ellis and her wife, Alexandra Johnson who captured the photography used in the title, are also both former Nottingham Forest Ladies players which is where they met and were both present alongside Katie Daynes.
Image credit: Alexandra Johnson
Naomi and Krysia presented each child with their own free copy of the book, which was also the first time the children had seen the book and there was much excitement to see themselves in print! Naomi’s mum was an Independent Usborne Partner, and Naomi remembers the previous incarnation of this book, which she has said inspired her football journey.
Image credit: Alexandra Johnson
Naomi spoke about her own struggles as a non-white female football player growing up, showcasing how important representation in the beautiful game is. Naomi and Krysia also took questions from the young audience, answering on their favourite memories in football, their career highlights, and how many goals they had scored. This last question had all the guests laughing.
Naomi spoke about how players like Rachel Yankey OBE, former Arsenal Ladies, inspired her as ‘she looks like me and showed me that I could become a professional football player’.
Image credit: Alexandra Johnson
Professor Surinder Sharma, Chair of Leicestershire and Rutland FA, who also works closely with Kick It Out, an organisation aiming to remove all forms of discrimination within sport, expressed ‘pride to be associated with the book and the Oadby Owls to reflect diversity within football’.
Image credit: Alexandra Johnson
Usborne are also donating copies of the book to Show Racism the Red Card to benefit their education and campaign work.
Want to know more about the organisation we worked with on Football Skills? Head to Show Racism the Red Card.
Interested in becoming a self-employed bookseller? Check out our Usborne Community Partnerships initiative!
