Mark scores with place in Paralympics football team

A MIDLOTHIAN teenager will be the youngest member of the Great Britain cerebral palsy football squad after being selected for this summer's Paralympic Games.

Mark Robertson, 17, who suffers from the condition, is going to join the 12-man squad of ParalympicsGB who will play in the seven-a-side tournament which begins this September in Beijing, China.

Mr Robertson is currently working as an apprentice mechanic and has been playing football since he was a pupil at Beeslack High School, Penicuik, where his PE teacher Gill Pye saw his potential and recommended him to the Scotland international cerebral palsy team.

He said: "Being selected to play both for my country – and now also as a member of the ParalympicsGB squad in China – is a great honour, which I have been able to achieve only through the support and encouragement of my coaches and team-mates."

Scottish Football Association coach Keith Wright said: "Although he only started three years ago,

Mark is now regularly selected for the Scottish International Cerebral Palsy Team and at the recent World Cup Games in Brazil he was awarded Young Player Of The Tournament".