‘What summer’s all about’ - Ex-Manchester City star reveals importance of club’s free kids’ sessions

Manchester City may be the world’s best football team, boasting world-class stars from all over the globe, but the club still remain very much grounded in the roots of their local community.

As Phil Foden, Rico Lewis and the plethora of young Mancuinan talent in the underage ranks will attest to, City still capture the hearts and minds of everyday Mancunians. That has been reinforced this summer with City, in conjunction with Kellogg’s, running accessible summer camps for kids of all abilities via their charity partner City in the Community (CITC), some of which have been made available for free.

The fun-filled sessions are for ages 7-14 and should keep kids active and entertained during the school holidays. In total, 30,000 free spaces will be given away across the UK this summer by Kellogg’s, as part of a partnership between the EFL, Manchester City, Celtic, Rangers, and the club community foundations.

To register, parents simply need to purchase a special promo pack of Kellogg’s cereal in stores, find the redemption code and then sign their kids up for a local session at www.kelloggsfc.com. Sign-ups remain open until 12 August. 

Someone who knows these sort of camps well is Nedum Onuoha, the boyhood City fan who progressed through the club’s youth ranks and eventually made 116 senior appearances. The 37-year-old spent the summers of his youth at camps like that run at Connell Co-op College, located a stone’s throw from the Etihad Stadium.

“I think these camps are vitally important,” Onuoha told ManchesterWorld. “I think that some are free is also a key thing, and something I have realised across many years is that CITC are trying to show healthier lives through football. 

“I think even going back to my childhood in the early ‘90s, I was here in these camps and for me to be here talking here about it and to know I can put my children into something like this, I think it says a lot. 

“I have seen myself how big football is and it just keeps growing. The engagement they can get with kids is huge, and to see these things be put on, to see the quality of the sessions that are put on and the surfaces on a beautiful day like this - that’s what summer’s all about.”

The former centre-back is a member of the CITC board of trustees, with City’s charity partner aiming to ‘support people across Greater Manchester by empowering healthier lives through football’. With so many families currently struggling across Greater Manchester, the charity’s work has never felt more vital.

“We’ve all seen it with the cost of living crisis and not everyone can afford to do the things for themselves and their families, but this is something that takes away that edge that unfortunately stops you from doing things,” Onuoha explained. “If you have the ability to take your child to something like this, I think it’s worth considering. I remember as a child loving these sorts of camps.”

Onuoha, now a regular pundit across TV, radio and podcast, had to raise his voice on several occasions to be heard over the hubbub of excited children’s shrieks. “You’ve got no school and you are playing football in the sun with a pitch like this and great coaches, scoring goals and losing track of time. That’s the stuff that summers are made of,” he opined, on a gloriously sunny Manchester morning.

With Onuoha’s skills honed at summer camps in his youth, he added he ‘wouldn’t be surprised at all’ if a Premier League star of the future was scampering around behind him. The City fan also couldn’t fail to notice how many sky blue shirts there were compared to those of Liverpool and Manchester United, certainly more than when he was a youngster.

“Manchester United and these teams have a huge fanbase, but City… the interest is huge,” Onuoha said. “You see lots of kids who take an interest in football and they look at who is the best, and for the past four years that has been Man City. The interest is there and you look at some of the quality of players they have and they're not just some of the best players in England, but in the world.

“They play at the stadium just across the road and they train literally 100 metres away from this field. Pep Guardiola is one of the most iconic managers in football history. As a consequence, they are very difficult to ignore because the quality is there. When you see camps like this, when you see Man City’s name and think about what they’re going to do, you know it’s going to be a good product.”

Onuoha was part of the City team in the early years after the Abu Dhabi takeover, as Roberto Mancini built what would soon become a title-winning side. Since his departure in 2012, the former England youth international has been amazed by the club’s progress, but was keen to highlight that local lads are still being given an opportunity at first-team level.

“I think City, from a playing standpoint, and the operation. I think they have been the standard for a little while now. People aspire to do what they’ve done and they’ve come a long way from what it was previously.

“They’ve expanded on a crazy level. We were talking about academy players and you see one player do it and everyone believes they can do it. Seeing Micah Hamilton do it - he made his Champions League debut in Serbia [in December] and was unbelievable. This is a guy from 10 minutes down the road. 

“That seven or eight-year-old kid now will know Micah Hamilton went to the same school as them. They live in the same area. It’s amazing to see the pathway and the success and the fact that City put it all together.”