FROM LONDON GANG TO LIBERTY STADIUM
THABO Khumalo was embedded in London gang culture and surrounded by violence and crime.
Living on the outskirts of the English capital and lacking direction, it took a moment of panic – his best friend being stabbed on his own doorstep – to change his life.
Now, after a move to Wales, he’s working for Swansea City FC while completing a degree in sports management, and this week was recognised with an award from the Prince’s Trust.
Born in Zimbabwe, Thabo and his family moved to the UK when he was nine to find a better life.
But hanging around city streets with his hood pulled up and without formal qualifications, he described his youth as “misguided” and he soon found himself immersed in gang culture.
“I was involved in many incidents,” he said.
“Older people often wanted younger people to do bad things so they didn’t get in trouble themselves. I was one of those younger people.
“When you’re that young you don’t realise what’s actually happening until you get more mature.
“By doing things for these people, I was getting into trouble myself.”
The situation reached a climax in 2012, when his best friend was stabbed on his own doorstep.
Thabo explained: “I hung around with him every single day.
“I had gone home just 45 minutes before that, then they just came at him, but he lives in a culde-sac so he had nowhere to run.
“Luckily, he put his arm up so they stabbed right through his arm. If he hadn’t done that it would have been a lot different.”
That was when it really hit home that he had to take action.
“It was because it had happened to someone so close to me,” he said.
“That was such a big moment for me. I thought, ‘I have got to get away from that area.’
“I was afraid of associating with anyone around there as it dawned on me if you associate with the wrong people you get in trouble.”
Thabo escaped to Wales after enrolling at university but struggled to improve his life, soon dropping out of his course and becoming isolated and disillusioned once more.
“It was a bit rushed and I was trying to focus on my work but kept having flashbacks to my past,” he said.
“I dropped out and signed up at the Jobcentre, but there it was month after month after month of the same thing.
“It got to the point where I wouldn’t hear back from anywhere at all.
“If you’re unemployed or have no experience you haven’t got a chance.
“They all tell you that you need experience, but how can you get that if no-one gives it to you?”
The local Jobcentre Plus eventually introduced him to The Prince’s Trust and he enrolled on a programme called Get Started with Football, designed to help unemployed young people gain confidence and new skills.
Thabo threw himself into every aspect of the programme, absorbing all the information he could about football coaching.
Encouraged by Swansea FC Community Trust trainers and the trust, his confidence, self-esteem and employability skills improved dramatically, and Thabo saw his future as a football coach.
“From that point on everything changed for me,” he said.
“The Prince’s Trust had opened the door to the rest of my life and I just had to walk through it.”
Thabo took up volunteering coaching roles at Swansea Academy, impressing with his enthusiasm and perseverance, and was taken under the wing of head coach Roy Thomas.
At the same time he secured a permanent job in hospitality at The Liberty Stadium, where he is now recognised as a reliable and hard-working employee. Now a young ambassador for the Trust, Thabo lives independently in his own flat, and is also juggling a sports management degree at University of Wales Trinity St David.