David Beckham setting up soccer academy
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-15 11:33

David Beckham is setting up his own school - a soccer school.

David Beckham meets pupils from his old school during the launch of his own football academy in Greenwich. England captain Beckham stressed the academy was about children enjoying themselves and not just about producing future stars.[AFP]

The David Beckham Academy opens this summer in east London, not far from where the England and Real Madrid midfielder grew up.

Dressed in a white track suit and wearing his hair long again, Beckham spoke softly Monday as students ran through basic drills with several hundred photographers and reporters crowding around.

"That was a good one, mate," said Beckman, encouraging one student.

As a child, Beckham attended a soccer school run by former England midfielder Bobby Charlton. He wants his school to be similar: professional, but low key.

"To see the happiness that football brings to kids, for me that is the most important thing," Beckham said.

Built next to the Millennium Dome on a horseshoe bend in the Thames, the academy will have two full-size fields, indoor facilities, classrooms and a dining area. The school will be open to boys and girls ages 8-15.

About 15,000 are expected to enroll, with 10,000 enrolling for free. Others will pay a STG250 ($A608.27) fee for a five-day training camp.

"David has never lost touch with the school and the friends he had there," said Clive Moore, the head teacher at Chingford Foundation School - Beckham's old school. "He wants to put something back into football."

Said Beckham: "To have kids from that school, and have them down here now and be part of this is special to me."

Moore came to the school in 1986 - the same year as Beckham. On Monday, he brought 20 of his students to the kickoff.

"I'm excited to be here today," Moore said. "You can only imagine what the students feel. It's a day they will never forget."

Turning 30 in May, Beckman is contemplating life after soccer. He says he's investing "several million" of his own money in the academy, which will be part of the regeneration of the Dome.

A sister academy is being planned for Los Angeles.

Beckham has hooked up with the Anschutz Entertainment Group, which is developing the vacant Dome into a 26,000-seat arena and entertainment complex.

"We chose him (Beckham) because he has this unique platform," said Timothy Leiweke, president and CEO of Anschutz. "He's widely recognized around the world as one of the most brilliant football players ever."

"It was just a natural partnership," said Leiweke, who watched Beckham tutor children recently in Los Angeles.

"I saw the sheer joy he has working with the kids - the joy that he brought out of the kids. It was something that was natural for us to do as a part of what we were doing at the Millennium Dome."

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