West Ham skipper Mark Noble dropped in to see some of Sporting Bengal United’s academy players last week

Sporting Foundation chairman Zak Khan heaped praise on West Ham United’s Mark Noble after he paid a visit to Sporting Bengal United’s Academy last week.

The Hammers skipper dropped in at the Stepney Green 4G pitch on Tuesday, January 22 to spend time talking to local youngsters.

Noble, 31, made an appearance at Bengal’s academy as part of his work for the Legacy Foundation and thanks in part to Telehouse.

Khan, chairman of Sporting Foundation, the organisation who formed Bengal all the way back in 1996, said: “Mark is an icon.

“He is the captain of West Ham and all of the kids know him, so we thought he would be a great person to get along.

“I can’t think of a much better role model for them and it was very inspiration for them to see someone like Mark and to know he had taken time out of his busy life to visit and talk to them.

“He was great too and told the kids about how he grew up in this area and how he knew about the obstacles you can face. I know it made everyone feel really good and we had some very excited parents attending too!”

Canning Town-born Noble was able to give a talk to the players in Bengal’s academy and watch the youngsters get put through their paces in the snow.

Sporting Foundation work on a number of projects in the local community and are looking to link up with Telehouse.

Khan added: “I have to say a big thank you to Telehouse. They are a global data centre based in the Docklands and they want to support organisations in the area and Sporting Foundation are one.

“We would like them to support Sporting Foundation and one of their commitments to us was to arrange Mark’s visit and it tied in with the Legacy Foundation.

“The Legacy Foundation was set up by footballers who wanted to give something back to the community through visits and various other ways and Telehouse are involved with the Legacy Foundation, so it worked well.

“We are hopefully this can be the first of a few visits because it makes a massive difference to the players in our academy.”

Sporting Foundation uses sport and football in particular to engage young people and delivers other projects to support them, like volunteering programmes, employment and training projects, one-to-one advice, mentoring, support, and gang and knife crime projects too.