Jake closes in on his own goal

WHEN Manchester City fan Jake Elsworth got chatting to the Barcelona FC press team at the Etihad Stadium he could scarcely imagine it would lead to him watching a game at the Nou Camp stadium.
However, that’s exactly what happened as the Priestley College student was asked to write a blog about the return leg with Manchester City.
The 16-year-old former Bridgewater High School pupil said: “I talked to them about the game and City’s performance and they liked what I was saying.”
Jake, from Appleton, had approached the Barcelona staff after their clash with City in Manchester.
He was given a great seat at the Nou Camp for the return fixture, which was a memorable experience as his blog – later published by ‘Vital Man City’ – showed.
In it he described the sights, sounds and smells of a match at one of the world’s most famous sporting arenas.
“Way up high in the gods, City fans pack the highest point almost suffering a nose bleed due to the altitude, the players must appear like Lowry stickmen,” he wrote.
“The artistic stadium stands before you; your head keeps rising up till your eyes eventually reach the summit, it is an amphitheatre of football and a shrine to excellence.”
As a devout Junior Blue the end result was not what Jake had hoped for, but the magic of Messi was something he will never forget.
And the excitement doesn’t stop there for the budding sports pundit who is studying Media Studies alongside Sports Development and Coaching at Priestley.
On a recent tour of Media City in Salford he got talking to the guides and they invited him behind-the-scenes of the sports studio to watch an episode of Match of the Day being put together.
Dani Toward, sports tutor at Priestley, said: “Jake is going to go far. He’s already shown amazing initiative and with his determination – and the qualifications he is working towards at Priestley – I am certain we will be hearing his voice on TV or radio in the future.”