Silva Excited by Arsenal Potential

Arsenal Amputees are looking to make a fast start to the season when the new league campaign finally gets underway this month.

The opening round of fixtures were postponed after the cold weather meant the pitches at Reaseheath were deemed unsafe to play on, with the EAFL season now starting on 18 February.

Club captain Helder Silva grew up in Portugal playing football at an academy level, but when the 34-year-old had his left leg amputated in 2004, it looked as though his footballing dreams had been shattered.

However, almost 20 years later Silva has represented the England national team at two World Cups and two European Championships, after a chance encounter with an Arsenal coach at the gym in 2015.

“I was working as a night receptionist at the time, and I would finish my shift at 7am then go to the gym and workout out”, Silva said.

“It was only through coincidence really that I got involved, because it was the first and only

time that I met the coach in the gym and I never saw him in there again.

“He saw me working out and came over and showed me an interview that Arsenal in the Community did with some of the players from the professional team and I instantly wanted to get involved.”

A change to the league format this year sees all six teams compete in one division,

with each team playing 10 league games over 5 weekends at Reaseheath College in

Cheshire.

The top four teams will compete in play-off fixtures to be crowned overall league winners at the end of the season, with all clubs also taking part in The EAFL Cup and The EAFA Cup.

Silva himself has managed to get his hands on both trophies in the past and the defender

can’t wait to try and repeat history.

He said: “The preparations have been really good so far, and we’ve been training for several months now in the build up to this campaign.

“We have a very young squad but we’ve also managed to bring in some players from

Manchester City who are taking a break from the league this season, and that’s given us

some experience through being able to bring in two former England internationals.

“At the start we were unsure about what we were aiming for this season, but everyone has

really high hopes now and it’s going to be exciting to see what this side can achieve.”

Training for Arsenal is free and takes place on Mondays from 5pm-7pm at Coram Fields

WC1N 1DN.

For more information surrounding the team, you can contact Luke Howard on:

Lhoward@arsenal.co.uk.