Running with the Brothers, which now meets every Sunday at the home of the Gunners, was set up by six friends in 2023 [Photos by Running with the Brothers founder member Omar Al Basry]

PASSING the Emirates Stadium on any given Sunday this summer, you might have seen bigger than usual groups of young men and boys doing laps around Arsenal’s ground.

Running with the Brothers, a club set up by six friends from north London in 2023, organises weekly running events with the motto: “No one is left behind.”

But for Hussein Osman, one of the founders, and all the young people who have joined him in Islington this summer, RWB has turned out to be about much more than keeping fit.

Mr Osman, 30, said: “We got to see each other, we didn’t spend any money and we came out of it having had a good chat. We decided to roll it out to the wider community. We thought to ourselves, who needs it most? The young boys and men, probably from ethnic minority commun­ities whose parents came from other countries who didn’t necessarily have that experience of going to uni here, getting a job, and can’t provide that sort of advice.

“It’s an opportunity to get some gems from the older guys, some mentorship.”

Mr Osman and his friends started out running around Wembley Stadium, but this summer they got funding from Islington Council to bring RWB to Arsenal, with the support of the Foundation of Progress charity.

As a Gooner himself, it was a no-brainer to “lift and shift” the template to his club’s own stadium.

Boys running around the Emirates Stadium

Mr Osman added: “It’s not the run per se – it’s getting together that’s the main thing. Chatting to each other and getting things off our chests becomes a reason for people to come out. I grew up in a house where my parents had fled war – we didn’t talk much about feelings, everyone just got on with it.

“Feelings and expressiveness are a luxury when you’re focused on getting food on the table and paying the bills. I had a 10/10 childhood, but if I can add to it, that’s saying, ‘if you’re feeling this way, it’s good to express yourself’.

“This is the thing for me and my friends – we want be that person we wish we’d had when we were younger.

“Whether it’s the pressures of social media or toxic expectations on men – most of the time another man has probably gone through the same thing.”

As well as the running itself, Mr Osman and his friends chip in their own money to do giveaways – gift cards, football match tickets and other goodies to younger “brothers”.

It’s a tradition that started when one 16-year-old arrived without trainers and they each put in £10 to help him buy a pair.

A recent group trip to run a marathon in Marrakech similarly allowed one 18-year-old to go on holiday and fly on a plane for the first time.

“This is all for the community, we make no profit, no nothing from it,” Mr Osman added.

“For one of the runs, 90 people came out – that was a surreal moment.

“The later in life you get, you should probably be making less friends – but the amount of people I’ve met in the last year and a half, and the mental benefits, it’s just insane. Now it feels like we’ve got a moral obligation to continue.”

• Running with the Brothers is meeting on Sunday, August 24 and Sunday, August 31 at the Thierry Henry statue outside the Emirates at 11am