Jeriah Boateng has won the Premier League Academy Young Writer award in the Under-10s category.
The ten-year-old is a part of our boys’ academy and his fantastic story about the human race getting the better of AI proved to be a hit with the Premier League’s judges.
“I was really excited that I won the under-10s writer award,” Jeriah said. “My mum told me when she picked me up from school and I was really pleased, I was excited to tell my teacher as they love football.
“My story was called ‘Football Foes’. The World had to play AI football players in a 3v3 match – I didn’t want to have too many players and make the story too complicated!
“The World had Robert Sanchez, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, but because the AI knew everything about them, they had to play in different positions and in a different way. Messi played like Sanchez, Sanchez played like Ronaldo and Ronaldo played like Messi. The AI got confused but still scored in the first minute, before Ronaldo scored in the last minute. It went down to a penalty shoot-out. Messi saved all of the AI’s penalties and that’s how the world won.
“It took me two weeks to write! It was 451 words, it was a real challenge. I could have written a story about how challenging it was!
“I am going to put the certificate in a frame and I will put the trophy on my shelf with my other trophies.”
Our education manager Nathan Marshall is delighted for Jeriah and the way he leads the way for other children within the academy.
“We’re all very proud of what Jeriah has achieved,” he said. “When we first discussed the young writers award with the group, we immediately saw Jeriah’s eyes light up and you knew that he already had a story in mind. It was pleasing to see Jeriah really take his time and work hard on his story.
“We want to promote the importance of reading and writing within the academy, and it’s great to have champions of that here with people like Jeriah. It’s only going to boost us up. He’s an example to all the other children here.
“Jeriah embodies the club’s ethos when it comes to life and learning. We want everyone within the academy to be enthusiastic about learning. It’s important that our children are open minded when it comes to learning.”