Chelsea Women forward makes a surprise visit to a coaching centre

Chelsea Women forward makes a surprise visit to a coaching centre

Chelsea Women forward Erin Cuthbert made a surprise visit to one of the Chelsea Foundation coaching and education sessions in Israel earlier this week.

The Scottish international did not feature against Israel on Tuesday due to a minor injury but that did not stop her popping along to Israel’s national training facility to meet the young girls in attendance for the female empowerment in sport session. Cuthbert spent time posing for photos and watching the girls play before taking part in a Q&A with the 60 youngsters.

The event itself saw girls from both Israeli and Palestinian backgrounds take part in coaching and education sessions with the Chelsea Foundation.

A humbling experience

‘It was amazing to come and meet the kids, such a humbling experience and all the kids were so happy to see me as well which is nice,’ said Cuthbert. ‘They were so enthusiastic and just really excited to play football which is nice to see. ‘I can only speak from my own experience in Scotland but I had little summer camps to go to like this event and the coaches were always really good and if a famous player came to visit I would try extra hard and want a photo like these kids did.

‘I can imagine there are lots of barriers the girls have to go through in their lives so football becomes a happy place to go to and shut away any problems and have fun. ‘It’s amazing what the club are doing in Israel. If our trip and these sorts of initiatives put a smile on one girl’s face that’s great, but it has done that for hundreds of girls from what I have seen.’

Less than 24 hours earlier there had been another surprise guest at the same venue, with Blues boss Emma Hayes joining a Foundation-run coach education session. Despite spending the day on a tour of Jerusalem, Hayes found the time to join the 30 coaches, 25 of whom were women, in attendance. ‘I really enjoyed that, I wasn’t expecting to see so many coaches,’ said Hayes, who is a Chelsea Foundation trustee.