Described as “one of British Sport’s most inspiring characters”, Mohammed Zafran has certainly left a legacy after being awarded the Pride of Sport winner of 2014.
Hosted by Sky Sports, the star- studded line up included sporting legends such as Kenny Dalglish, Sam Allardyce, Alan Curbishley, David Seaman, Ledley King, Jermaine Defoe, Barry Mcguigan and Simon Jones.
Zaf got a standing ovation from the crowd after he left a heart warming message on stage,” On a night like this in which we are all celebrating and congratulating our heroes, my heart and thoughts are with the family of the late cricketer Phil Hughes who passed away recently.”
Known for his gentle approach, we wanted to get to know the man behind the awards and to find out his reasons for wanting to give back to the local community.
What the most amazing thing is that Zafran actually works as a Community Liaison Officer at South and City College Birmingham. Any work he partakes in is all done outside his working hours- voluntarily. In essence, he describes his job as, “going around all the deprived areas in Birmingham and liaise with those youths who have engaged in crime and drugs and put on sporting programmes and engage them in community activities so that once they mature and are responsible, then I get them in to education.” Not only does Zafran engage with the deprived youth- something that many people feel too intimidated to do- but he gives them a second chance through sport.
Many people felt the award couldn’t have been placed better, than to Zafran. Sky Sports News Presenter Georgie Thompson said: “Zaf is an absolutely incredible young man and people from all over the country need to recognise his work and what a great impact his made to so many individuals.” Zaf was equally thrilled at receiving the award, saying: “I felt honoured to receive the Pride of Sport award in the Local Hero of the Year category. This was the 7th Major Award I have won in the space of 12 months after winning the National Award. It was here I was called “a living legend” by the Prime Minister-David Cameron after completing my 99th project.”
Zafran is a very positive thinker and has great plans for the future. “My vision is for all the youths in the West Midlands area to have a bright future and to keep them away from trouble. I want all the elders and people in general to be proud of today’s youth. The way which worked for me was by getting these youths engaged in sports and I have been fortunate to have a lot of backing by professional sportsmen who have coached and supported these youths to make their dreams become a reality.” A very strong message to the community- to not shy away from the youth, but rather to embrace them for who they are.
But things haven’t always been smooth sailing for Zafran, as losing his blind sister to cancer five years ago hit him rather hard. “It taught me a big lesson in life that we can’t take nothing for granted in life and I started to do some events for charities.” But, a year later, things were about to get even worse. “I lost my brother in law who was murdered in a local park at the age of 24. This broke my family and also became an inspiration for me to go out and make difference in the community and I was determined that I do not want other families to suffer the way mine did. I started going out in late hours and engaging with youths who were part of gangs and were not in education or work. The Principle of South and City College, Mike Hopkins has been a big inspiration to me and a massive factor in how far I have progressed in my mission. Had he not supported my work at that time when other youth centres were not compromising and gave me free facilities to use then all this would not have been possible. Now the count is up to 8,000 youths who have been part of my programme and have either gone in education or found jobs.
“I have set up a women’s academy recently which gives women who are restricted to carry on with education because of family values the opportunity to get involved in sports and education in a workshop environment.”
