TELLING people I am the sports editor of the Morning Star often garnered similar reactions over the last seven years.

A lot of it has been: “What the Daily Star?” to which I’ve replied, “No.”

For some people it’s been: “That paper is still around?” to which I respond: “Yes, still going strong.”

But there was a time, when I first started, when the reaction would be: “Oh, I didn’t know the Morning Star had a sports section,” and one time, in particular, changed the trajectory of my time at the Star.

It would have been very early on in my career.

I was coming back from a demo with some colleagues, and some people we met along the way.

This young woman asked me what I did at the Star. She said that she’d read to paper for most of her life. But when I told her what I did, she said she didn’t realise the paper had a sports section.

I just remember thinking: “How is that possible?”

Whenever someone replied: “I didn’t know the Morning Star had a sports section,” I laughed and would say: “Yeah, the paper goes past page 14,” or “have you ever accidentally looked at the back page?”

But that particular time was different.

When the young woman told me that she didn’t know the Morning Star had a sport section, I felt disappointed.

It’s one thing for someone who had never picked up the paper to assume it was purely politics, I thought the same thing.

But for a reader, someone who held the physical copy of the paper, to just stop at the letters page, it made no sense to me.

So I made a vow to myself. As long as I was the sports editor, I would do everything in my power to ensure that no-one had that reaction again. That the sports section would become one of the most prominent parts of the paper.

And I would like to think that I’ve achieved that.

This is a very long-winded way of me saying that my time at the Morning Star has come to an end.

I’ve loved every single minute being the sports editor of this amazing paper. And I can’t thank the paper enough for giving me a chance when no-one else would.

The Star took a warehouse worker, out of Next, and made him their head of sport.

But not just that. In doing so, I became Britain’s first black sports editor of a daily national newspaper, something which is just mind-blowing. A title I don’t give up easily.

But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think now was the right time to move on. I feel like I’ve taken pages 15 and 16 of this paper as far as I can as a sports editor, and it’s time for some fresh ideas to pick up the baton and continue this race.

Don’t get me wrong, I do have some regrets from over the last seven years. 

I would have loved to interview Jeremy Corbyn about being an Arsenal fan.

I would have loved to witness Manchester United win the Premier League and cover it as a journalist.

I would have loved for all of my ideas and suggestions to have succeeded but life doesn’t work like that.

The women’s football column I had planned never got off the ground, despite me joining shortly after Alex Scott stopped writing for the paper.

The non-league column with Ravit Anand started brightly but ultimately, due to various factors, was unable to be a success long-term.

So here’s hoping that the next person comes in with similar ideas or ideas of their own, and makes them successful.

One of the things I wish for this paper, going forward, is for my replacement to continue the journey that I started, turning the Morning Star sports pages into a place where sports news from across the world is told.

But not just the usual press conferences or match reports, but political sports news, telling the stories of the continued discriminatory issues plaguing various sports across the world. The ongoing battle for workers’ rights in Qatar, in the build up to next year’s World Cup.

I know it’s a journey which has had its ups and downs. I know there are readers who have wanted me to completely steer away from the Premier League or football – not as a whole, not from grassroots or women’s football.

But move away from the big leagues, move away from violent sports such as boxing. Move away from cruel sports like racing.

But I believe that each one of those sports has a voice in this paper, and a big one.

John Wight’s writing is some of the best I’ve ever come across. And Farringdon’s tips are just brilliant.

And moving away from football would be denying what James Nalton has brought to the paper. Through his work, the Star has a relationship with City of Liverpool FC and one that can only get bigger.

Plus one of the last things I have done in this role is help with the Morning Star anti-racism football shirts, in partnership with the Trade Union Football and Alcohol Committee.

I believe the Morning Star needs all their voices in this paper, especially given the way those aforementioned writers tell stories — it’s unparalleled.

So I end on this.

Thank you for reading my words, for opening your arms and accepting me, and for pushing me to become not just a better journalist and editor but a better human being.

And to everyone whose reaction was: “I didn’t know the Morning Star had a sports section” – well, they do now.

Kadeem Simmonds has been Morning Star sports editor since 2014. He leaves for a new role in sports journalism this week.