A 14-year-old Ukrainian refugee told Cwmbran Life that “football is my life” as he stood on Penylan Fields being welcomed by his new teammates at Cwmbran Town FC under 15s.

Arsenni and Maxsym came to the UK with their parents under the refugee resettlement scheme in April. The two friends used to play football together for the same team. Now they are training together every week at their club’s home ground in Coed Eva.

Arsenii said: “We are enjoying it. We played together in FC Dynamo Kharkiv many years ago. I played for five years in Ukraine, I like football. Football is my life.”

Max stopped playing football and started to play basketball in his home country. He said: “When I arrived here I continued to play football and basketball during school. Football training here is more harder.”

Arsenni is a striker or midfielder and Max plays left-back.

Ian Smith, the club coach, said: “We enjoy having them here. The boys get on really well with the guys, literally from the first week, when they didn’t even know their names. They just came onto the pitch and were kicking footballs around and enjoying it.”

The club has started the process of registering them with the Football Association of Wales ready for the upcoming 2022/23.

Photos gallery of Arsenni and Maxsym with Cwmbran Town FC under 15s