A teacher from a school in Wrexham told how he and two of his students rubbed shoulders with David Beckham, Pele’s daughter and FIFA boss Gianni Infantino during a visit to Qatar for the World Cup.

Josh Hughes, 31, was joined by 17-year-old Nicole Samson and Iwan Phillips, 16, for the trip of a lifetime at the start of the tournament and even got to see Wales’s first match against USA.

The trio were picked by Shaun Harvey, advisor to the board at Wrexham AFC, to take part in Qatar’s ‘Sport for Development' programme – called Generation Amazing – which aims to deliver a lasting legacy for the 2022 tournament.

Josh, a history teacher, from Ysgol Morgan Llwyd in Wrexham, said that as well as the celebrities they met the best thing about the trip was working with different nationalities and cultures from 31 other countries represented at the tournament.

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“I‘m a working-class lad used to going on holiday in West Wales, “ said Josh. “This was a big eye-opener for me – working with so many different cultures and backgrounds from places like Senegal, the USA, and France. Everyone was assigned their own country so you ended up working closely with people from many different parts of the world”.

Panel speakers included Pele’s daughter, Kely Nascimento-DeLuca, who talked about the role of sport in empowering societies and bridging gender gaps – just a few weeks before her father’s death from colon cancer.

“I didn’t realise who she was until halfway through her speech”, said Josh. “She talked about how her father was ill and how growing up she often wouldn’t see him for long periods of time while he travelled the world.”

Nicole, who works in the club shop at Wrexham and wants to work in sports business when she’s older, managed to get a selfie with Infantino at the festival's opening concert

The event also contained the most surreal moment of the trip for Josh when the Hollywood actor and Wrexham owner Ryan Reynolds appeared in a video on stage reading out his name and his students as Welsh delegates to the festival.

The Leader: Nicole with David Beckham.Nicole with David Beckham. (Image: Newsquest)

That was after Beckham turned up during a football tournament the Generation Amazing delegates were taking part in – another selfie opportunity for Nicole.

One of the highlights was visiting the Wales training camp on the eve of its opening match, which representatives from Saudi Arabia, Spain and Brazil also did with their teams

“Everyone was so welcoming and we had a kickabout with some of the players, although Gareth Bale didn’t join in.”

Now back in Wrexham Josh is focusing on Phase 3 of the GA project – passing on what they learned in Qatar to others in their community.

Josh said: “I’d like to get funding to set up football groups in Wrexham that would concentrate on diversity, different cultures, different backgrounds. Especially since I found out that 97.5 % of the population in north Wales are white ethnic background.

"Young working-class people need to experience different cultures, different backgrounds. They can have a member of staff telling them racism is wrong but they’ve got to have experiences as well.”