Albion Foundation's Ajay Gill vows to continue important West Brom work

As part of the Premier League’s ‘More Than A Game’ campaign club’s were encouraged to highlight a ‘community captain’ – a person who has delivered real impact in their local area.

And with nearly 20 years of involvement across a number of Premier League initiatives, both as a participant and a leader, Gill was always a shoo in for the award.

“The Community Captain showcases the work I’ve done over the years, particularly in the past five or six years being involved in the disability work here,” Gill said. “The campaign is about showcasing the wide range of investment across all levels of football and non-football activities to allow players, parents and carers to connect amongst themselves, the community and the football club.”

Continuing, Gill said: “There’s something for all at the foundation and I think it’s been a key driver in my motivation that I want to continue to improve my local area and the areas that I lead on.

“It’s not been a solo journey, I want to thank all my colleagues and the parents and carers for all the work they’ve done, because they’re a key part of the organisation.

“To be highlighted as community champion, my family have been really honoured and the local community have been really honoured.

“Making people proud around me has been a really proud thing for me, that’s one of the greatest achievements.”

From a young age, Ajay’s life has revolved around West Bromwich Albion.

Having been brought up on the housing estate under the shadow of the Hawthorns he went to Albion Junior School, now the site of Sandwell Academy.

Through the school gates a young Ajay would stare, captivated by the Albion first team players who trained across the road.

However, his affiliation with the club’s community team truly took off during his three years at Sandwell College, who are strongly link with the Albion Foundation.

“Unfortunately the dream that I had, and I’m sure every other young girl and boy has, to become a footballer didn’t quite happen for me, so the next route to still be involved in the industry was to become a coach or something in and around the sport,” Gill admitted. “I had a voluntary role which was just a couple of hours at the centre I’d attended as a participant, and I was used as a young leader to help get everyone’s attention.

“With young individuals who just want to be there and play football it can be hard to get their attention, so I was highlighted as being a vocal individual within that group.”

The community captain added: “I helped get everyone involved, I was setting up pitches a couple of hours before the session was due to start just to help the staff make sure it was ready to go.”

While the work Gill does is through the football club, he was keen to stress that their involvement goes beyond football rivalries, and the sport altogether.

“Individuals of all ages and abilities can embark on this journey by getting involved in our programmes, whether that’s sporting or non-sporting events,” he explained. “It’s not just specifically football. I think people may see it being attached to Albion and think it’s all about football, but we want to spread the message that there are activities for all.

“For me I want to get more local people involved in the work that we do, but I don’t think there’s any barriers for anybody out there, whether they live in the local community or so many miles away from the football club.

“Here at West Brom what we do fantastically well is we welcome all, and we do it with open arms, no matter what football club or community they’ve come from.”