Ousman Manneh created history when he scored the winning goal for Werder Bremen in their 2-1 shock victory over Bundesliga rivals, Bayer Leverkusen which capped a fairytale rise for him after having just two years after fleeing his homeland, The Gambia, as a refugee. The 19-year-old recently left his entire family behind two years ago and only started playing football when he settled in a German refugee centre, but impressed in a trial with German fifth tier side Blumenthaler in 2014 before going on to score 15 goals in 11 games for their youth team.

The Midlands is buzzing with running mania after organisers of the Birmingham International Marathon revealed more than 4,000 people have already signed up for next year’s inaugural event, just two weeks after entries were opened. The marathon takes place on Sunday, October 15, 2017 – the same day as the Great Birmingham Run half marathon – which means more than 25,000 runners are expected to hit the streets of the city for a true festival of running.

Lawyers at Birmingham law firm Clarke Willmott LLP are celebrating a new sponsorship partnership with the Solihull Moors FC under-13s girls’ team, in a deal which comes during Women’s Sport Week. The law firm is sponsoring the up-and-coming team this season as they compete in the Central Warwickshire Girls Football League. Partner Rayner Grice said supporting the junior girls’ team was important to her colleagues who feel passionately about encouraging young people into sports and supporting non traditional women and girls teams.

The University of Wolverhampton has kicked off a new football programme at schools in Staffordshire as a way of getting young people to think about their future goals. ‘Kick-Off - Explore Your Future’ is a new programme which is running over five weeks and using football to engage 13 and 14 year old pupils.  It involves 90 students from 5 different schools; Holy Trinity Academy, De Ferrers Academy, Sundorne Sports College, Staffordshire University Academy and Telford Priory School.   

The UK Corporate Games - Europe's largest annual multi sports festival for businesses - will be hosted in Nottingham for the first time ever in 2017.  It is expected to attract around 5-6,000 participants to the city from all over the UK. The Games will be taking place across multiple sporting venues in Nottingham - VisitEngland's Home of Sport - from 6 – 9 July 2017 and many of the UK's top companies have already entered a team.