Non-League and Academy football writer

Valdemar is pictured third across from the right, at the bottom row.

Valdemar de Sousa is the chairman and founder of Middlesex County Football League Saturday Combination side, Feltham Town FC. Feltham Town won promotion from the Jeff Nardin Division in 2023/24, to the Saturday Combination for this season (2024/25). Having just completed their first ever season in the Saturday Combination, Feltham Town are preparing for a very big cup final, next Saturday at Uxbridge FC (kick-off is at 17:30pm). They will face AFC Heathrow in the final of this season’s Jeff Nardin & Combination Cup, which will be a really interesting and competitive game of football. I recently spoke to Valdemar de Sousa, ahead of the final.

Could you talk me through a bit about your background in football, prior to founding Feltham Town FC?

Valdemar: I was playing football in my motherland, The Seychelles. For a couple of years I played in the first and second divisions of football in The Seychelles. Later on, and a couple of mates of mine (during Covid) would meet up once a day and train together, as we had all played football together. And from that, other people gravitated towards us, and we started playing football together, eventually playing 11-a-side football, in Feltham. With so much interest, we all thought that we should start a football team. That was where the idea of Delva Sports started.

The league season for the Middlesex County Football League usually starts in September. But, we started Delva Sports in April, and so after having played friendly matches with step 6 sides, all of our best players were taken by teams like Hilltop and Deportivo Galicia, who are big sides. This was before the season had even started, and by the time that the season had actually started, we had about eight players registered. And, we were just throwing teams together, and taking big losses off teams, and at a certain point the two friends that I had stared the club with, had dropped out. So it was all on me, and at 22 it was a big burden on me, and I had to close the club. People don’t really understand it, but, step 8 of the Middlesex League is still a very high standard of football for a local league. So when you’ve got so many things to factor in, such as player turnover, it was just unsustainable.

After taking a bit of a break from football, the thought of founding Feltham Town was already in my mind. I didn’t really like the name, Delva Sports, as I wanted to associate it to my local area, Feltham. Originally I wanted to speak to Sunday league side Hounslow Town, and merge with them, but they didn’t get back to us. Then, someone from Feltham FC, who were starting to create their own club, approached me about getting involved with them. Although I was interested, they didn’t match my ambitions. As time went by it just hit me out of nowhere, that Feltham Town FC has got to be done, and I did it. And I wanted to create an experience for people that would make them think, that you know what, I want to be part of that. Away from Feltham Town, and last season I played for Staines & Lammas.

What are some of your standout memories with Feltham Town so far, in the Middlesex County Football League?

Valdemar: The standout moment in the league was our first win in competitive football. As it was our first game as a team in the competition, and we beat Old Isleworthians Reserves, who are such an established club in Middlesex. So to win against them was such a nice moment, as the team took its first steps in competitive football. The referee from that game actually wanted to throw me out of the ground, because I was so happy, and I’d done a knee slide in to the corner flag after our third goal! But, I was just so happy watching that game!

How have you found the current 2024/25 season, so far?

Valdemar: It’s been challenging, that’s for sure. We’ve been through a lot, and I call it second season syndrome, because we’ve had our star players taken from us by better teams, who you can’t really say no to. So our top scorer and player of the season went to SL Benfica, and one of our best players in midfield has moved aboard. Also, our star goalkeeper had to undergo knee surgery for a meniscus problem, and so from the first day of the season it has been difficult/challenging. 

Moving up a division (the Saturday Combination) we knew that we’d have to improve further on our quality, but we’ve also lost a lot of quality. And so it’s just about dealing with what you’ve got on a match-day, and going up against established teams. We knew that it was going to be challenging, but we wanted that, and we live on that challenge.

Could you talk me through Feltham Town’s run up to the final of this season’s Jeff Nardin & Combination Cup?

Valdemar: It’s been three words – last minute winners! It’s been scenes! We started off with a first round tie against Heston, and so I knew a lot of their players, with us having done the double over them last season. I knew their goalkeeper really well from youth football, and so I knew that it wasn’t him who was playing that game, and so they’d played ineligible players in that game. We’d played so well, even though we’d lost 4-1.

After losing that game 4-1, I went to the league and said that it wasn’t a fair match, and so the league gave us the bye for that game. Following that game we played Foxes, who are also from the Jeff Nardin Division. We went 2-0 down in that game, before going on to score three goals during the second half, including a last minute free-kick winner. In the semi-final tie with Sudbury Court, we went 1-0 down in that game, during the first half. In the second half we scored two goals, with our 16 year old goalkeeper (Ethan) scoring the winning goal, which was incredible, and from a free-kick in the 93rd minute.

What are some of your thoughts ahead of the final of this season’s Jeff Nardin & Combination Cup final (on Saturday the 26th of April) against AFC Heathrow?

Valdemar: It will be a very good battle, for sure. Every game that we’ve had with AFC Heathrow, there’s been a bit extra on it, because it’s more than just a match, it’s a derby for us. For example during our home match with them this season, the match was abandoned. That was because of one of their players punched one of our players during that match. So there’s a bit of a sour taste, which makes this cup final very interesting. It’s also a game in which the team are really fired up for. This final really could go either way, which is what makes it such an interesting game for the neutral, as well. We have quite a lot of people who want to attend and buy tickets for this final, and I think that it will be a great advertisement for the lowest level of Middlesex League football.

What are some of your hopes for Feltham Town for the future?

Valdemar: We want to try and take the club as far as it can go, and we’re realistic as well. We’ve got a very young group of players, who are very ambitious and talented, but who need time to develop their skills. I’ve played the game at a decent standard myself, and I know some people in the game, and I’d love to see us play in the Combined Counties League, in the next ten years. I think that would be amazing for us. 

I know that you can enter teams at step 8, which I did with Delva Sports, but, I think that I’ve learnt from my mistakes. I’ve put in a real project with this club, and the beauty of being at the bottom of The Jeff Nardin Division, and getting that promotion up, is that we’re embracing all of the divisions of the Middlesex League, that we go through. To go through every emotion and build this club through the Middlesex League, and hopefully then progress up to the Combined Counties League, that would be a real story to tell.