Tielemans and D’Angelo receive PFA Community Champion Award

Youri Tielemans and Sabrina D’Angelo have received the Professional Footballers' Association Community Champion Award for the 2025/26 season.

The Community Champion Awards were created by the PFA to celebrate those players going above and beyond to support their communities.

Tielemans’ nomination comes through his engagement with the Aston Villa Foundation’s Play it Forward programme, visiting young participants at the programme’s launch event at the Concord Youth Centre in Sparkbrook and sharing his insights into his own journey in the professional game.

Alongside support from the Premier League, the PFA and Birmingham City Council, funding from the Kaizen Foundation ensures the long-term sustainability of custodian organisations of the Play it Forward sites. The Villa Foundation further strengthens these initiatives by providing expertise from highly-skilled professionals and experts around grants and fundraising, marketing and communications, governance, monitoring, evaluation and impact, health and safety, safeguarding and risk management.  

Speaking at the event, Tielemans shared: “It’s always good for [young people] to feel part of a community, and to feel safe playing sport.”

Villa Women’s D’Angelo was a regular visitor at Foundation sessions throughout the season, engaging in programmes relating to the engagement of women and girls in football.

Her first appearance was alongside teammate Maya Hijitaka at Birmingham Settlement Sports & Community Centre in Kingstanding for the launch of the ‘Play it Forward’ Play zone. D’Angelo also visited year 9 and 10 students at Aston University’s Engineering Academy, as part of ‘Play Her Way’, a Cyrille Regis Legacy Trust programme, aimed to help girls build confidence and leadership skills and reach their potential through football and sport. Sabrina joined a workshop with girls to work on problem-solving skills, session planning, and practical session delivery. She then took to the stage in the school hall to answer questions about her own leadership skills, and the challenges she faces in her role. 

Back in March, the Women and Girls division of Everybody’s Game held a 6v6 tournament as part of Women’s History Month, with D’Angelo joining our participants to support the event, engage with the ladies and present the winners with medals, whilst also inspiring each person with her experience in professional football. Funded by the Premier League, the PFA and Islamic Relief, Everybody’s Game is designed to bring more inclusive opportunities for British South Asian communities and Women and Girls to get involved across mainstream football, either as players, volunteers, coaches or referees.

The Foundation would like to extend a thank you to Youri, Sabrina and all Aston Villa players who have been involved in community work over the course of the season!