A group of third-year scholars from Blackburn Rovers’ Football Academy are becoming used to serving up the goods both on and off the field.

 

The seven youngsters have been undertaking a bespoke 10-week course at Lancaster and Morecambe College designed to give them an understanding of food as fuel for the body.

 

The course, entitled ‘A Footballers Guide to Healthy Eating – Fuel for Sport’, was developed by the College’s Business Training Services in conjunction with Blackburn Rovers.

 

Rick Leighton, Blackburn Rovers’ Head of Education, says that it will be useful to the scholars in many ways. “The course was designed to meet the needs of young professional footballers who, at the age of 19, very often find themselves living away from home and invariably eating fast food because they don’t know how to prepare and cook meals for themselves.

 

“As diet is a very important part of their development as a player, the course teaches them how to cook healthy meals with the correct nutritional value – such as pasta dishes and fish etc.

 

“The boys worked in the college’s catering department kitchen and went on to prepare a fabulous meal for ten invited guests – including myself! Premier League Learning have funded the course over the past two years for which we are very grateful. The scholars really enjoyed it and several of them have told me that they now cook for their girlfriends and family when they go home.”

 

Successful students this year have included: Raffaele Devita, Martin Ollso, Bryan Hodge, Stephen Thomson, Frank Fielding, Mark King, Ryan Woods, Joe Garner, Eddie Nolan and Rostyn Griffiths.