Across seven sessions taking place throughout the season, players from the Under-13s to Under-16s will participate in live Q&A conversations with former Palace professionals who now work across the club.
The programme offers young Eagles the opportunity to hear authentic first-hand experiences, ask their own questions, and learn directly from individuals who helped shape the club they represent today.
The first session in the series was led by Stuart O’Keefe, who returned to Crystal Palace in September 2024 and now works within our Academy as Under-11s Head Coach.
O’Keefe originally joined Palace from Southend United in 2010, going on to make 51 appearances in red and blue. He became a reliable, hard-working presence in midfield and played a significant part in some of the club’s most memorable moments of the modern era.
He delivered an outstanding performance in the 2013 Championship Play-Off final against Watford, entering the match early due to injury and helping Palace control the midfield on their way to a 1–0 victory at Wembley.
Later that year, he scored Palace’s first three points of their Premier League return with a superb curling effort against Sunderland.
After leaving Palace for Cardiff City in 2015, O’Keefe served as club captain at Gillingham before moving on to Aldershot and Chatham. His return to South London has seen him share his leadership, experience and passion with the next generation of Palace players.
The session opened with Academy coach and programme lead Josh Bednash challenging a packed room of U13s to U16s to guess how many former Palace players now work across the Academy and first team.
After several guesses, U16 and U18 defender Dylan Monk correctly answered seven. Bednash hinted at the impressive list of Icons who will feature in the coming months, before introducing O’Keefe and showing a short highlights montage of his career – a moment that immediately captured the room’s full attention.
