The Portuguese international joined Deputy Mayor Kit Malthouse, Assistant Police Commissioner Tim Godwin, local dignitaries and young people at Stamford Bridge this week to celebrate an initiative using football to help tackle crime, drugs and gangs across London.

The Kickz project is helping divert participants away from many of the social problems facing young people, often in some of the most deprived areas in the country. Chelsea's Football in the Community team deliver six Kickz projects to over 1,200 young people in four London boroughs.

The initiative has been an unqualified success. Chelsea's Wandsworth project saw a reduction in crime of over 60% when the scheme operates and 45 former participants now volunteer on the Chelsea schemes, with many going on to gain employment.

Bosingwa said: "Although I haven't been at Chelsea very long, one of the first things I saw is how important things like this are to the club and the players. They are very important events for children because they give some of them alternatives to drugs and crime. They can do something with their lives, enjoy them and not to get into trouble. I came from a small village, so we didn't have this sort of trouble that we have in big cities. I was lucky, however if I lived in the city it could have been different."

He also spoke of his enjoyment of coming to events such as Kickz, which are helping young people. "I'm happy to be here with them, Children like to be close and see people that are on television so I'm very happy they are happy that I came. "

Kit Malthouse, Deputy Mayor for Policing said: "Kickz is a fantastic project on a number of levels, I mean first of all its great for kids, it teaches them self-discipline, gets them involved in sport and indeed with other activities, but secondly it also gets results. Where there is a Kickz project we see significant reductions in anti-social behaviour, related crime and some robbery.

"Chelsea are doing a fantastic job in being involved with this project. I mean a lot of people criticised football for being a rich industry that doesn't put enough back but what they don't see is work like this which is great.

"Chelsea are one of those teams that take a big interest in their local environment and then their local community and it is nice to see players showing up and people taking part, but the real test is the work that's done with the kids and how that effects them and the benefits they feel and I think we all win from that, Chelsea as well as the local community."

The Portuguese right-back's visit formed part of the Premier League's Places for Players initiative, which aims to highlight the continued and increasing commitment Premier League clubs have to their local communities. As well as Chelsea's participants, there were programmes delivered by Fulham, Arsenal and QPR.

Through the expertise of the police and local youth organisations, Kickz identifies and targets areas of the capital with high incidences of crime and anti-social behaviour. By providing diversionary schemes the programme positively engages vulnerable young people.

Assistant Commissioner Tim Goodwin said: "Chelsea and the other clubs getting involved in the way they have is superb and we need to make it bigger, we need to sustain the funding. I want not 10,000 youngsters involved, I want 20,000, 30,000 and the bottom line for me is I have got to stop kids being killed by other kids.

"The Programme provides us with a valuable tool to engage with young people and address some of the issues affecting them. I am convinced that the Programme is already having a positive impact on local youth crime and anti-social behaviour. We are able to build on this by tackling some of the more challenging issues around youth violence and knife and gun crime".

Chelsea's Kickz programme has included a wide range of activities including workshops on the dangers of guns, drug, knifes and anti-social behaviour. The programme also delivers a host of sporting activities including boxing with former world champion Richie Woodhall basketball and a girls only street dance scheme designed to increase participation amongst females.