Five Arsenal Women players made a surprise visit to our Down Syndrome participants during North London United’s session at The Arsenal Hub recently.
North London United is a community-based sports project dedicated to young individuals aged five to 30 years old with Down Syndrome. They have been visited by many Arsenal players down the years, but it was still a shock for them when Arsenal captain Kim Little, Alessia Russo, Emily Fox, Laura Wienroither and Kaylan Marckese turned up unannounced to take part in the session last Monday.
Laura and Kaylan have taken part in these sessions before, notably on World Down Syndrome Day in March, and Laura has been an ambassador for Down Syndrome Austria since last year.
“I just want to create awareness for the Down Syndrome community,” she said. “I think they should have rights in society and I think they’re a really great group of people. They just bring joy to everyone. I think that’s what we need these days in the world, and that’s why I’m really happy to get involved as well as I can.”
North London United was founded by its coach Harold Bennett, whose daughter Nyella has been a member since the start, and earlier this year we celebrated ten years of working together. Beyond football, these sessions aim to nurture skills including movement, communication and social development.
Held at The Arsenal Hub every Monday from 5pm to 6:30pm, the North London United sessions consist of two 45-minute segments tailored to different age groups.
For more information email accessibility coordinator Luke Howard at lhoward@arsenal.co.uk
Copyright 2025 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
