Written By: Kenneth Ho

Decked in a Courts outfit, Manchester United legendary midfielder Paul Scholes fielded questions from the Courts Young Lions team in the dressing room, as he recounted his experience playing for the Red Devils and being under Alex Ferguson’s supervision.

The young players looked on in awe, and eagerly took in the advices dispensed by the 39-year-old.

As part of Courts’ 40th birthday celebration and corporate social responsibility scheme, Scholes was invited to town to help promote and support local football and youth developments.

Part of his schedule involved a one-hour training stint with members of Young Lions, East View Secondary School students and Special Olympic youth players at Jalan Besar Stadium on Friday morning.

The former Red Devils schemer was candid in his answers, and took the Young Lions players by surprise with his affability, especially after they took to the pitch with Scholes.

“He didn’t teach me any technique, he just said he was lucky all the time but I said that was impossible you can’t be lucky all the time!” Young Lions winger Sherif El Masri said.

“He’s a really down to earth guy, his technique is just superb. He’s a world class player, it was just fun playing with him.”

Although it was a short kick-a-about session with Scholes, the time spent with the diminutive Englishman was priceless for members of the Young Lions team.

“Scholes showed that you don’t need to be big and strong to be playing football,” El Masri said of the 1.68m former England international.

“You just need to have a strong mentality, a good routine like he said, and work real hard, that’s all you need.

“It shows me I really do need to improve my technique even more.  Even if you think you are good enough there is always room for improvement and this showed me that I have to work even harder.”