Rashid Abba

Head of Mentoring

Rashid Abba has been striving to encourage the growth of South Asian Football for over 25 years. He was a pioneer and the first person of South Asian heritage in the country to work in professional football, with his efforts spanning Community, Recruitment and Youth Academy departments. A key area of focus for Rashid is breaking down barriers and increasing South Asian people’s participation in the game
as players, coaches, talent recruiters and fans. Rashid has worked at a number of Professional Football Clubs, in a range of roles such as community sports manager,talent identifier, academy coach, coach developer, coach mentor. Rashid has also represented West Ham United as an International coach educator, for the premier skills coach education programme in India, China, and Africa. Rashid is currently managing
employability programmes for the West Ham Foundation and is also the West Ham Academy Link Mentor, inspiring the next generation of players, coaches, and talent recruiters from underrepresented communities in the game.