We have been following Gillingham’s Luis Binks on his fledgling pro career, but now we are proud to salute Luis as an ambassador for the “Young Lives Foundation.”

We spoke to Luis about the Foundation, and he proudly told us, “Yeah I wanted to try to help young people in the local area.” He went on, “obviously I’m still very connected in the Medway and Kent area and I thought to myself “why can’t I help give back?” It’s early days at the moment but all I really want to do is try to help motivate and give these children an opportunity.”

“I’m in a fortunate position and I have seen first-hand how hard it can be for some children growing up in Medway.”

The Young Lives Foundation is an award-winning independent children’s charity based in Maidstone with expertise in advocacy, mentoring, befriending and activity programmes.

The charity has a vision where they believe that every young person in need should have access to the resources and opportunities needed for them to achieve their potential and lead fulfilled lives.

YLF have a mission statement on their website – https://ylf.org.uk – to be alongside children and young people in need in ways that enable their voices to be heard and champion their rights and interests, to support them through times of difficulty and distress, and to assist them to achieve their potential.

We then turned our attention to Luis’ playing, asking how Como and Serie B was treating him?

“Yeah, it’s great!” he told us. “The stadium is in a fantastic location, right by the lake and surrounded by mountains. The ground itself is quite old but the plan and project Como have in place it’s only a matter of time until they will renovate it, I think!”

“The season itself so far has been difficult so far having played six games and only managing to get three points but along the way we haven’t had much luck having played three of these games with ten men! Serie B is similar to the championship in the respect that a lot of teams have a lot of physicality and big forwards but also a lot of teams to try and play some good football.”

With Gareth Southgate and his England squad having been in Italy on Friday night, losing 1-0, we wondered if the mickey taking in the dressing room had started to which Luis laughed and replied, “not yet, but it’ll start to come my way. I’m expecting it as I got a load after the Euros!”

As an Englishman abroad we finished this latest chat asking Luis for his reflections on the passing of HM The Queen. “It’s obviously devastating news after all she gave to the country and how she was a leader in times where the country didn’t have much direction.”

“I was at home watching the news as obviously I heard she had fallen I’ll and then around 6:30pm the news broke she had passed away. It was quite a surreal feeling as although I never met her, I felt like I knew her, it’s a weird feeling to describe but one I think a lot of people resonate with!”

“God Save the King!”