So much of our work to celebrate diversity and inclusion happens through the Chelsea Foundation, which in October last year started a project ‘Who We Are’ in over 100 schools and educational settings.

The aim of this project is to celebrate and promote awareness of Chelsea’s players of black heritage, both men and women who had made a first team appearance for the club. Working with club historian Rick Glanvill, we identified a list of 108 players, all of whom were then profiled by children in Foundation partner schools. Children were asked to draw the player, create a fact file on the player and write a match report or story about them.

This then led the Foundation to create ‘This Is Us’, an expansion on ‘Who We Are’ to celebrate 20 Heroes from the list of black players, creating an exciting new education programme as part of the club-wide ‘No To Hate’ campaign, supported and funded by club owner Roman Abramovich.

To mark the work of both projects, we have commissioned a book ‘This Is Us’. Created with Refresh Sports, this book celebrates Chelsea’s black players throughout the club’s history, featuring the work of children in Foundation partner schools as well as illustrations of the 20 Heroes by young black female artist, Zem Clarke.

At Chelsea FC, we don’t only say No To Hate, racism and discrimination; we also champion our diverse history. All the players featured in this book have made their mark on Chelsea Football Club and we are proud to celebrate them not only this month, but all year round.