The Milton Keynes footballer is backing the Para Lions

Paralympic footballer Alistair Patrick-Heselton believes a home European Championship’s this summer can see the Para Lions over the line to achieve a European title and inspire a generation.

The former Queens Park Rangers player, who represented Team GB at London 2012, thinks the home support could be the missing piece to take England’s Cerebral Palsy team one step better than their second-placed finish last time out.

The Para Lions will be gunning for gold in Loughborough, having lost 3-0 to Ukraine in the IFCPF European final in Sardinia in 2023.

But with the tournament returning to England for the first time in 10 years, Patrick-Heselton is backing England to deliver the goods.

“Personally, I do think [the home crowd] might just be that extra bit that they need, and it will get them there,” he said.

“It always adds an extra pressure but it’s a good pressure and I’m sure it’s a pressure they love to have.

“Having competed at London 2012, having the home fans behind you is always massive. You feel like you’ve got that extra player.

“One thing is you’re always loved and celebrated which is great. Having the Euros here, they’ll have the whole country behind them, and they know that.”

Patrick-Heselton was inducted into the National Football Hall of Fame in 2017 after playing in the seven-a-side cerebral palsy team for Team GB.

The side reached the 2012 BT Paralympic World Cup final where he scored to lead a comeback attempt in an honourable 4-2 defeat to Brazil.

Now Patrick-Heselton believes that the growing profile of the Para Lions and Para Lionesses teams will only be enhanced by a home tournament and possible title come August.

“We talk about inspiring a generation, but we can’t be inspired by what we don’t know and can’t see,” he said.

“So having it here, I really think is the next step to trying to promote and inspire the next generation because they can really see it.

“To understand you often need to visually see it to understand and know what it could actually mean in their own lives so that is massive.”

The striker, who played professionally for QPR and Stockport County prior to suffering severe head trauma during a car accident in 2006, was speaking at Torriano Primary School as part of the Youth Sport Trust’s National School Sports Week.

There he was providing crucial representation alongside England rugby international Shaunagh Brown and Olympic sprinter and bobsledder Montell Douglas.

It was in the school environment that the Paralympian was first inspired to dream of his potential as he asserted the importance of activity as a child.

“National School Sports Week 2025 is about keeping young people active. Research shows us that not enough kids are active for an hour a day, that is what we’re trying to change,” he explained.

“That is a minimum, if you want to do more go for it. You can just see the smiles that it produces. It should be celebrated everywhere every day.

“For me as a sportsperson and an elite athlete it was very much the school environment that helped me to believe that I could go on to do more.

“Every child should be given that opportunity to dream and believe that they can go on to do that, even if they don’t go down that path.”

Throughout the day pupils at the Camden primary school got to experience a range of activities from archery to gymnastics and participate alongside their sporting heroes, testing themselves on the football pitch alongside Patrick-Heselton.

Pupils even dressed up as their sporting heroes for the final day of National School Sports Week known as Sports Star Friday, providing an inspiring experience for the Paralympian himself.

“We’ve just seen the gymnastics and wow! I don’t think I could have done what they were doing,” he said.

“It was superb. While the children were going through it, they were setting out everything they needed, they were in-charge, and they were so in tune with each other.

“That is always a big part of what we do as sportspeople which is the goal setting and planning, and they already had it down.”

National School Sports Week is an annual campaign by the Youth Sport Trust, dedicated to celebrating the power of PE, sport, and play to build brighter futures. This year, powered by Sports Direct x Under Armour, marks the 30th anniversary of the Youth Sport Trust, who is a UK leading children’s charity for improving young people's wellbeing through sport and play. Visit www.youthsporttrust.org