Nørgaard and Ajer Star in Trust’s Match of the Day Feature

Last Sunday Christian Nørgaard and Kristoffer Ajer were the stars of the show in the Trust’s Match of the Day feature.

The players spoke to the cameras at Gunnersbury Park Sports Hub after taking part in our Football for Thought session in partnership with Head in the Game.

Coinciding with Mental Health Awareness Week, the feature highlighted the Trust’s new partnership with NHS West London Wellbeing & Recovery College, before spotlighting our Football for Thought mental health programme for men.

The Football for Thought programme is structured to focus on different mental health topics each week and provides participants with an opportunity to improve their skill-levels, fitness capabilities and confidence.

Emily Donovan, Health and Wellbeing Manager at Brentford FC Community Sports Trust, said, “Delivering these sessions in a non-clinical setting enables the participants to be physically active whilst also removing a barrier to accessing mental health support. It was great to see Christian and Kristoffer actively engage in the session, encouraging others to share how they’re really feeling and helping to tackle mental health stigma.”

Both Christian and Kristoffer took part in the session, engaging with the participants in an array of football drills and group conversations and openly discussed how they had been feeling.

Christian Nørgaard said, “I think socially were not as good today as 20 years ago. Back then we didn’t have social media, screens and smartphones.

“After the warm up drill one of the lads was already saying he was feeling better. Just from exercising, laughing and interacting with other people is so important. It doesn’t matter where you are in life we all face the same problems when it comes to mental health.”