Disabled boy bids to make football history

Published on Friday 12 June 2009 22:13

A WHEELCHAIR-BOUND teen-ager is trying to defy overwhelming odds to become Scotland's first disabled football manager.

Craig Carter, 16, has never been able to play because he was born with cerebral palsy. He took up coaching instead and was put in charge of his school's team. Now he is signed up to an official SFA coaching course and hopes one day to lead a professional team.

The teenager, from Aberdeen, said: "I never let my disability get in my way. I don't get frustrated by it and it definitely doesn't control my life."

After talking with teachers at his school, St Machar Academy, he was put in charge of a school team. He leaves school this summer but is refusing to take the route of most disabled people and end up behind a desk in an office.

As well as the SFA course he's also signed up to an HND in sports coaching at his local college.

His mother Jennifer, a nurse, said: "We spoke for a long time about what he was going to do after school and when he came up with this we didn't think for a minute that he couldn't do it."