It’s not every day we get a brand new partner that has played international football, and it’s even more unusual that we get enquiries from someone who has travelled 3,500 miles with his young family to be in the UK.

This month’s Partner Of The Month, Marvin Belboda, has quite the story to tell.

So Marvin, you’ve had quite the journey to get here, tell us a little about your backgrounds?

I always enjoyed playing football from a very young age.  Growing up in Bermuda, where football is one of the main sports on the island, it was quite natural to get involved in playing the sport.  I started playing on Bermuda youth teams and eventually progressed to represent Bermuda’s senior national team.  More recently, before moving to the UK, I had spent years coaching youth teams in the league in Bermuda.

Have you settled in ok, it must be very different?

We are still settling in here.  It’s been a great experience thus far but also quite a nerve wrecking experience, trying to get settled and everything up and running.  I’m quite looking forward to the new experiences and growing the business.

Was staying involved in football in some way always in your thoughts?

Yes, football has always been in my thoughts.  Playing was my extra curricular activity daily as a child and a way to keep active and out of trouble growing up!

Was it this football background that attracted you to the Leisure Leagues Franchise?

Yes – initially it was why the advert grabbed my attention.  It was something I felt I could relate to and enjoy while also earning an income.

Football runs in the family, I believe your little boy is good player?

Football does run in the family.  Both my daughter and son played with me in our yard from very young just for fun.  My daughter moved on to dance and netball, but my son has stuck with football, really loves the game, and has been signed with a local league premier club in the U.K.

You have the Hastings area, what was it about Hastings particularly?

We are not too far from the Hastings area and we had travelled there quite often when we first moved over.  To be honest though, that was not the area we were first looking at. Your business development team carried out their extensive research and recommended that this would be the best location for us.  We rely on Leisure Leagues and their great expertise, so naturally we went with the location they recommended for us.

Both yourself and your wife have been for training, how did you find that?

I found the training to be very intense, as there’s a lot of information given over the two day sessions.  It was also very informative and helpful.  We’ve both left feeling very assured that we have a team at Leisure Leagues behind us to answer our questions daily and support us while we work to grow our league!

I guess you are just looking forward to getting started?

Oh yes – I am really looking forward to getting started.  We are working hard to get the teams together in order to get up and running.  We are excited for our upcoming start day in November.

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