Ade grew up in Elephant and Castle, south London which is known for its high level of gang crime, territorialism, drug abuse and mass unemployment. As a youngster it wasn’t easy to stay away from negative activities and Ade found himself hanging out with the wrong people. However, despite this Ade always had a love for football.
Many of his close friends received prison sentences for serious crimes, but Ade made sure he was not going to be another product of this environment and with the help with ACN he soon started taking advantage of the opportunities provided to him and gained qualifications and work experience.
With the help from his youth workers Ade achieved 10 G.C.S.E’s at B-C and in his final year of school Ade went on to play for Staines Town Academy as well as attending Kingston College studying a sports science BTEC course.
After experiencing the serious loss of a close friend through a fatal shooting incident in Peckham it motivated him to pursue positive aspirations, which led him into further education at St Mary’s University, where he has completed a BSc Sport science degree in 2014.
After completing his degree Ade worked as a paid member of staff with ACN before taking on the role of project coordinator of Tower Hamlets with partners Celtic Football Foundation where he continues to inspire young people. Ade said, “I would like to help people like me from a young age so that it doesn’t have to take them as long to realise that crime is not the way forward”.