Keon undertook a BA in Sports and Social Sciences at the University of Bath, which he completed a professional placement at QPR in the Community Trust and received the Bath Award and Half-Blues Award. After graduating and completing a four-week coach education scholarship in China, Keon was offered a position as a Disability Officer at Palace for Life Foundation. Alongside his full-time role, he volunteered as a Blind Football Content Editor for the International Blind Sports Federation and the International Paralympic Committee and a Blind Football Development Coordinator for the Zimbabwe National Paralympic Committee for five years. He then completed an early completion Master’s Degree in Sport and Olympic Studies at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. He thereafter assumed roles as an Associate Lecturer in Physical Education, Sport and Youth Development at St Mary’s University followed by a Sport Development Officer at HR Sports Academy. Keon was awarded a studentship to study for a PhD at Loughborough University in October 2023.
Disability, Migration and Negotiating Adulthood: Insights from West African Amputee Footballers in Türkiye
PGR Supervisors: Elizabeth Mavroudi and Serhat Yilmaz
This thesis aims to examine the migrant aspirations and experiences of young West African men with amputations.
The study will adopt a multi-sited ethnographic approach to conceptualise the complexity of cultures and varying conceptualisations of disability that affect young West African men with amputations in reaching adulthood through a professional football career.
The focus on West African Amputee Footballers in Türkiye offers a novel contribution to migration studies and disability studies by illustrating how disability adds complex layers of discrimination to skilled labour migration when combined with the intersectionality of race, gender and social class. This will broaden debates within these studies, which are predominantly focused on access to healthcare services and forced migration, by unpacking the following: access to and types of employment; capacity of and decisions relating to return migration; and geographical mobility.- Richardson, K. (2023). Black Professional Football Players, Social Capital and Social Change: A Case Study of Marcus Rashford's Child Poverty Campaign. In S. Whigham (Ed.), Critical Issues in Football: A Sociological Analysis (pp. 174-185). Oxford: Routledge.
- Richardson, K., & Fletcher, T. (2022). Blind football and sporting capital: managing and sustaining participation among youth blind football players in Zimbabwe. European Sport Management Quarterly, 1-21.
- Richardson, K., & Fletcher, T. (2020). Community sport development events, social capital and social mobility: a case study of Premier League Kicks and young black and minoritized ethnic males in England. Soccer & Society, 21(1), 79-95.
- Richardson, K. (2020). “The Blind can also Play Football”: Factors Influencing Blind Football Participation among Zimbabwean High-School Students with Visual Impairments. Sport and Olympic-Paralympic Studies Journal, 1(5), 104-116.