As part of the programme, five schools have a full-time, dedicated Chelsea Foundation staff member who is on hand to provide mentoring, peer support, extracurricular activity and behavioural guidance to assist with the emotional learning of students.

Jack Austin, Kobe Barbour, Landon Emenalo, Harry McGlinchey, Harry Rodda, Tayo Subuloye, Sol Gordon, Hudson Sands, Joseph Wheeler-Henry and Yahya Idrissi made visits to each Chelsea Champions school. They discussed their journey in football, what it takes to play for an elite-level academy, and how they work on their mental health in a competitive sporting environment.

Austin and Barbour visited Fulham Boys School and presented to a group of Year 10 students.

Both Jack and Kobe are recovering from injuries and spoke of the skills they have developed in building resilience. Jack said: ‘It’s been tough being injured but you learn how to keep going. All the first-team goalies are incredible role models and are great at giving us time. What stands out is their mentality.’

Kobe added: ‘It’s important to have a social life and have friends checking up on you when times are tough. It helps having friends outside of football who can give you a different opinion.’

The other scholars visited Fulham Boys School, Chelsea Academy School, Merstham Park School and Thomas More School respectively.

Jonny Drabble, senior project manager for Chelsea Champions, said: ‘The age gap between the scholars and Chelsea Champions students is only a couple of years, so they can really relate to each other and the challenges teenagers face today. Seeing and hearing how the scholars have worked on football, education and mental health was an important lesson for all the students.’

Miss Gilbert from Fulham Cross Academy said: ‘Having the Academy scholars come in provides our students with a sense of inspiration and drive to reach their goals. The boys' dedication and passion for the game was evident to see, which in turn motivates our young people to dream big and work hard.’

Mr O’Donnell from Fulham Boys added: ‘To be able to gain an insight into the life and experiences of these scholars inspires our boys to continue working hard, understand sacrifice and maintain high standards on their own journeys in sport and education. The scholars conduct themselves extremely well and set a positive example to boys not much younger than themselves.’

Chelsea Champions is supported by the Premier League and the Professional Footballers’ Association. Administered through the Premier League Charitable Fund, the funding helps football clubs to tackle inequality and respond to local challenges, supporting people and their communities to be more inclusive.