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England and Leicester City's Demarai Gray speaks about the power of positive coaching

As our 21 Days of Positivity begins this week, we hear from England U21s and Leicester City’s Demarai Gray, who reveals how his coaches and family members all helped him on his pathway to the top.

Monday 21 Jan 2019
Demarai Gray talks about the impact positive coaching has had on his career

There are people that coached me from a young age, people who are part of the academy at Birmingham City, they played a big part on me as a person.

The likes of Steve Spooner, Kevan Broadhurst, Mike Dodds, I had great relationships with all of them and they worked hard with me when I was there.

You as a person, your team-mates and your coaches, you all need to back and support each other and if that isn't there, then you're not going to be successful.

Every successful team has that good togetherness and backs each other so I think overall support is very important in a team.

You can't forget what they've done and how they've made you as a player so I'm grateful to a lot of coaches and there's so many of them I'd like to thank.

Lastly, I'd like to thank my mum who took me to football for 16 years and without her, I wouldn't be where I am today.

My uncles too, they played a big part on the male side for me so I'm very grateful and I'd like to thank you all.

21 Days of Positivity is our Respect initiative for coaches and grassroots football clubs. Find out more details about Respect in 2019 and our ‘We only do positive’ campaign for grassroots football.

By Demarai Gray England U21s and Leicester City