A teenage football fan from the city of Ouro Fino in Brazil was guest of honour at Chelsea this week after winning a once-in-a-lifetime competition to visit London, meet his footballing hero and cheer on the team at Stamford Bridge.

Sixteen-year-old Caio Ribeiro was presented with his own shirt by his favourite player and fellow Brazilian Ramires.

'I know that from when I arrived at Chelsea the community work is an important part of the club,' Ramires said. 'It's an honour to welcome Caio to Cobham and I congratulate him on his outstanding work.'

Caio won the competition organised by the British Council and Premier League through their Premier Skills programme.

He said: 'This visit is a dream come true for me. I was amazed by the training facilities at Chelsea. The technology is fantastic.

'It was brilliant to be given a Chelsea shirt with my name on it too. It was an honour to meet the Premier League players.

'Ramires is my favourite Chelsea player and a role model for me and other young Brazilians. To meet him was fantastic. He was really nice and talked to me about living and playing in England. He wished me all the best! Peter Cech also stopped and talked to me. It was amazing to meet all my favourite players.

'Visiting London has been really interesting. I love it here. It's so different to my home town, especially the buildings.'

The competition invited entrants to name their favourite Premier League football club and then create a video or presentation showing connections between their home town or city and the town or city where their favourite Premier League club is based.

‪‪Premier Skills uses football as a tool to engage with and develop the skills of young people in community coaching and English language skills. The English language element of the programme focuses on using the motivational power of football-based content, and the huge global interest in the Premier League, to support English language learning through a range of free materials and resources for teachers and learners of English around the world. Already, over one million materials have been distributed worldwide through the programme.

Caio will also be at Stamford Bridge on Saturday cheering on the team in the game against Blackburn Rovers. The young Brazilian also met Hugh Robertson, Minister for Sport and the Olympics, who congratulated him on his winning entry.

Fellow Chelsea fan Robertson said: 'Premier Skills uses the power of football to help improve young people's lives overseas. Not only does it develop their leadership skills, by training them to be community coaches, but it improves their English language skills too. I hope Caio enjoys the rest of his trip to the UK, and meeting his Chelsea heroes and sees Chelsea win on Saturday.'