As his fitness returned, so too did his energy, which had drained away in the aftermath of his diagnosis. Training sessions gave him a reason to get out of the house, and matches gave him something to look forward to.
What Kaidi experienced anecdotally is increasingly supported by scientific research.
Scientists and medical experts have long linked exercise with improved mental health.
A recent UCLA study found that among people who exercised regularly, the number of poor mental health days was significantly lower.
A 2023 review published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine – drawing on more than 1,000 trials and 128,000 participants – went further still, concluding that physical activity is one and a half times more effective than counselling or leading medications at reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Researchers believe part of the explanation lies in the brain itself: aerobic exercise has been shown to stimulate the growth of new neurons in the hippocampus, the region responsible for memory and mood regulation.
Perhaps just as importantly, football also gave Kaidi a community.
Among teammates who understood what he had been through, Kaidi found acceptance where he had expected judgement.
He admits he had his own stereotypes about mental illness, and had fought the diagnosis for months, uneasy about how the world might see him. But at the football club, the label fell away.
Everyone was, as he puts it, “on the same page”, and from that common ground, something like genuine friendship grew.
Before long, it had taken him all the way to a tournament in Italy, one of a growing number of international competitions that use football as a tool for mental health recovery and social inclusion.
The Dream World Cup, which began in 2016, brings together players from across the world – Argentina, Japan, Senegal, Spain and beyond – with participants drawn from psychiatric services and recovery programmes, competing in the belief that the pitch can do things the clinic cannot.
The driving force behind these tournaments is the International Football Committee on Mental Health, chaired by Italian psychiatrist Santo Rullo.
It was founded in 2013 after psychiatrists and social health workers from eight countries gathered in Tokyo and signed a declaration committing to sport as a vehicle for inclusion and recovery among people living with mental illness.
The cup has been held in Osaka and Rome, and organisers are now preparing for the next Dream World Cup in Peru, with the date yet to be confirmed. In September 2024, the concept expanded further with the first Dream Euro Cup, bringing together teams from across Europe.
In the years that followed, football became more than a route back to health for Kaidi; it became a vocation.
After gaining his coaching qualifications through the Fulham FC Foundation in 2016, he began thinking about how to offer others the same sense of purpose and belonging he had found on the pitch.
In 2019, he founded Minds United.
What started with seven players and a bag of footballs has since grown into a community organisation with more than 400 members, offering football sessions, social activities and support networks for people experiencing mental illness, disability and social exclusion.
The club now fields multiple teams for players aged 18-70, attracts referrals from mental health services, homelessness charities and community organisations across west London, and is supported by organisations including the NHS and Kensington and Chelsea Council.
A women’s section was established in 2021, and in partnership with Middlesex Football Association a women’s division was added to the North West London Mental Health League the following year. According to the club, 95 per cent of players reported an improvement in their mental wellbeing.
Across Britain, organisations including Coping Through Football in east London, Kick Start FC in Wiltshire and Sport in Mind run football programmes for people living with mental illness, addiction and social isolation.
The movement is increasingly international, too. After meeting members of the Italian national mental health team at the “La Testa Nel Pallone” futsal tournament in Lecce in June 2024, Kaidi set about creating the UK’s first national mental health football team.
He assembled the squad in just three months. Organisers from the European Culture and Sport Organization suggested branding it “Team GB”, but Kaidi resisted, saying he wanted to leave room for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to eventually field their own national sides.
England went on to reach the quarter-finals of the 2024 Dream World Cup.
At the club’s west London community centre, volunteers, coaches, people experiencing homelessness and those living with mental health conditions from a wide range of backgrounds gather in a spacious room filled with pool tables and an art corner overlooking a dreary, traffic-choked road and a sprawling supermarket, with rows of affluent homes rising behind it; a small but vibrant snapshot of modern London in all its complexity.
The same sense of belonging extends onto the pitch.
