Kai Mustafa - Charlton Challenge

Kai Mustafa

Kai first started attending Charlton Athletic Community Trust’s (CACT) Charlton Challenge sessions aged 5 to work on his football skills.

Charlton Challenge is a structured programme for children aged 4-8 which aims to improve their core movement and football skills. The programme is designed to encourage the young footballers and help them realise their full potential, whilst creating maximum enjoyment.

After regularly attending Charlton Challenge for 2 years, Kai had steadily improved his football skills and showed passion for the game, so CACT coaches offered him the opportunity to join the Valley Gold Advanced Centre to help develop further. 

The Valley Gold Advanced Centre offers talented players from across CACT’s community programmes the chance to train regularly to an Academy standard curriculum.

Kai’s Dad, said: 

“Being part of the Charlton Challenge has been great for Kai developing his overall football skills. He started with real passion but very raw. The course has focused him providing really good clear guidance session by session each term. He has improved overall in technique, skill, and confidence across the board.

“All this continuous improvement has meant he has now moved to the Advanced Centre, where he has now progressed to learning more about positioning and how to play different aspects of the game. It has been an excellent experience, which I would recommend to anybody interested in improving their game.”

Josh Covill, CACT’s Football & Sports Development Officer, said:

“Kai came to the Charlton Challenge when he was 5 years old and very quickly you could see his passion and love for football. His improvement has been steady and has shown lots of great attributes to help him on his journey with us.

“Now aged 7, he has earned his opportunity to join the Valley Gold Advanced Centre and we hope he continues his development, learns even more new skills and grows as a player and a young person with us.”

If you would like to find out more about the Charlton Challenge programme, click here.