Right to Dream’s vision helps children reach potential in football and beyond

T he Danish Superliga is coming to a thrilling conclusion, with FC Copenhagen and FC Nordsjælland competing to win the league. If Nordsjælland secure the title they will do so as the youngest team competing in Europe’s top divisions. They host Copenhagen on Monday.

My recent obsession with the Superliga began when I started exploring the broader role football can play in society. I wanted to learn from the best and the most purpose-focused organisation in sport, maybe the world, is the Right to Dream group (RTD), which established itself in Ghana in 1999 and bought Nordsjælland in 2015. Most recently it has expanded to Egypt, where it is building an academy, thanks to a partnership with the Mansour family.

The RTD manifesto states that if the conditions for thriving are set correctly and the development of character is prioritised, everyone can strive for excellence, irrespective of their background. Football is the vehicle for the change it wants to see in the world. Its vision dual-tracks educational outcome and football development with genuine parity.

A chance introduction to Tom Vernon, the visionary founder of Right to Dream, brought me and four friends to Ghana last year. More than 20 years earlier a 19-year-old Tom had travelled to Ghana to look for adventure and work as the assistant coach at Hearts of Oak in Ghana’s Premier League. He lived on the fringes of the Nima district of Accra, where he befriended a young footballer with big dreams but no team to play for. Tom and his equally visionary and resilient wife, Helen, were inspired by this young man to start a local team. When they saw that many of the children faced challenges accessing all their needs as student athletes, they opened their home to 16