ARTISTIC students from Oldham Academy North have been using their talent to celebrate the beautiful game and Manchester United players past and present.

The Manchester United Foundation partner school's art department developed a major project for students going into their final GCSE year which involved researching football art and developing their own style in which they could paint a famous United Star.

15-year-old Shalima scoured the internet for her project research and decided to paint current Reds midfielder Paul Pogba for her final piece: “I’ve done a lot of painting but this is my favourite because Pogba is one of my favourite players and it also linked with my kind of art”

Former United full-back Denis Irwin was also a popular choice for students as 15-year-old Abu explains: “I wasn’t actually born when he was playing, but when I was doing all of my research his picture really stood out for me.

“It’s my first big painting I’ve ever done, I had a lot of fun doing it and it has come out really well so I’m happy.”

Head of Art, Mr Fox, said: “When we began working with the Foundation, we were asked to make some pieces to celebrate the partnership.

“The students have achieved a fantastic piece of GCSE work first and foremost, and you can see now how proud they are of what they’ve done and how excited they are, and all of them will hopefully get a great GCSE grade for them too.”