Brighton & Hove Albion defender Inigo Calderon has been handed the Football League's latest unsung Hero of the Month award for his selfless work in the local area.

The Spaniard follows in the footsteps of Rochdale's Peter Vincenti, who scooped the inaugural accolade last month for his own off-the-field achievements.

Calderon inspired the creation of the Want to Work and Get Ready To Work initiatives, which looks to get jobs for the long-term young unemployed, following his own personal battle during his early days in England.

Having arrived with no job and no real prospects outside of football, the 33-year-old - who left his family behind in Spain - faced a daunting battle.

"I like the Want to Work programme for selfish reasons," Calderon said. "It's a good opportunity for me in the future because in Spain there are also a lot of people trying to find a job. I was six months without a football team and I came here to England to find a job. I had to do the same things as these people do when they apply for a job.

"I came to the UK with nothing. Since I was a kid I wanted to come here because of the passion there is in English football. I had finished my contract in Spain and I thought it was the perfect moment to come here but it was really hard to get even a trial. I had to keep myself fit. No-one knew if I was running every day or not, so it was a personal fight with myself.

"That's what I try to tell everybody on the Want to Work programme - that when you are trying to find a job, you have to do it every single day. As soon as you miss one day of your classes or of getting fit for the job, you are losing against yourself. It's the game you have to play and it's not easy."

Calderon, who is also a regular visitor to hospices in Sussex, helped raised £2,500 for a local hospice last summer by completing a mini-triathlon.

"I don't consider myself as a hero at all. The real heroes in this story should be the top players because I think they have real power to change things," he added. "If they just said one day that you have to eat a red apple, then 80% of the kids in the world are going to start eating red apples.

"They could use their power to change things and to do things for the benefit of human beings, instead of just trying to get more and more money with advertising."

Calderon was handed an initial short-term deal with Brighton in 2010 following a brief trial spell on the South Coast.