How Villa keeper Brad's all-America approach is working with kids

Professional ice hockey teams wanted him to leave his Ohio home when he was only 13.

And, by the time he was ready to go to college, he was being offered scholarships to play basketball and tennis as well as ‘soccer’.

He even went to UCLA to study architecture.

When he first told the American football coach at his high school that he wanted to play soccer, the coach was incredulous.

‘He told me I’d never amount to anything if I did that,’ recalls Friedel.

‘And, to be honest, until I went to college and started playing for UCLA I didn’t even think about it as a possible career.

'I was good at the other sports and at 18 I had to make a choice between hockey and football.

'But I just loved the game and I wanted to play.'

’That passion for the sport served Friedel well, not least when it came to coping with rejection.

‘It took me five years and five attempts to get to England,’ he says.

‘In 1992, I signed for Nottingham Forest but was denied a work permit. In 1994, I signed for Newcastle and got denied a work permit twice.

‘I then signed for Sunderland in1995 and got denied a work permit.

'And then, in 1997, I got denied a work permit when I wanted to sign for Liverpool but won on appeal.

'It was always because I didn’t have enough international caps, which is something they seem to be able to get around more easily these days.

‘It was a tough time. Horrendous.

'But when I look back now it was probably a blessing in disguise because it meant I lived in Copenhagen when I was at Brondby and in Istanbul when I was at Galatasaray.

‘It gave me the opportunity to experience different cultures and see the world, learn languages.

'Stuff I wasn’t going to learn in a school book.

Friedel has set up his own football academy back in his native USA

'Living in Istanbul was probably the best experience of my life.

’In the end he made it to England, signing first for Liverpool, then Blackburn Rovers and most recently and, in the process,established himself as one of the finest goalkeepers in the Barclays Premier League.

But, when he reflected on his journey, Friedel decided he wanted to make it easier for kids to complete the transition from promising player in the U.S. to a professional in Europe.

‘The system is broken in the U.S.,’says Friedel as he relaxes at Villa’s training ground.

‘Not least because you actually have to pay to play.

'Columbus Crew are the only club who don’t charge their under 18 and under 16 players.

'Some kids are paying as much as $5,000 (£2,500) a year just to play for a decent club team.

‘So I decided to build my own academy and it’s the first academy in the US that is free of charge.

'We recruit kids for their talent rather than their ability to pay.'

Brad Friedel’s Premier Soccer Academies is a remarkable act of philanthropy.

While Friedel has guaranteed the money it took to build the $10.5million (£5.25m) facility, he will never make a penny and even the academy itself is a non-profit making organisation.

Any money made from kids who go on to sign for professional football clubs will be injected back into the business so the academies can expand.

The academy in Cleveland is only in its second year, but there are already plans to build three more.

Two in the U.S. and one in Mexico.

‘We have brought 30 kids in from around the world and they stay with us on a year-round basis,’ explains Friedel.

‘We provide them with everything.

'From top level coaching to accommodation and school. We are essentially their guardians and we want them to be professional players or secure scholarships at college.

Friedel insists he did not leave Ewood Park due to the appointment of former Liverpool team mate Paul Ince as manager

‘We’ve got kids from Zambia, South Africa, Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico as well as the U.S., all aged between 13 and 17.

'And we have an arrangement with one of the best schools in Ohio.

'I’m on the board of governors at Lake Ridge Academy and all our boys go there.

'Some we have to pay fees for. Some go on scholarships.'

Most of the kids, says Friedel, have already played at international level.

‘Five of them have have also been across to Europe,’ he says. ‘In fact, two of them have just been over to train with Manchester United.

’That does sound like it could be lucrative for the academy.

‘All I will ever get back is the money I put into it,’ he says.

‘That’s a legal thing Down to the last penny.

‘There is some land I purchased that I could yet develop for commercial purposes.

'I never became an architect but property development is something I’ve got involved in.

'But that wasn’t the motivation with this.

‘We built the academy in a depressed area.

'It’s in a town where Ford used to have a plant and when the plant closed down it meant the loss of 3,500 jobs.

'So we went and bought a golf course and turned it into a football academy and hopefully it will help the area economically.

‘We also built the place with sponsorship, grants, money from the bank, but I put money up and guaranteed it and only once the academy is properly up and running will I take that money out.'

He is an extraordinary man.

Someone who made the financial commitment to the kids of America when he had his own wife and children to consider.

But the 37-year-old is bright.

Unusually so, it has to be said, for a footballer and unusually sane for a goalkeeper.

Even if he does have this thing about not stepping on the white lines when he’s warming up.

He does not have an agent and he negotiated the terms of his contract with Villa when he moved in the summer.

‘I’ve done my last three contracts,’ he says before then asking if he can set the record straight on his reasons for leaving Blackburn.

‘It had nothing to do with Paul Ince arriving as manager,’ he says.

‘Paul is actually a friend of mine from our days together at Liverpool.

'We used to travel to Liverpool together in the car and when Paul was on the shortlist I actually gave John Williams, the chief executive, a very good recommendation.

'You can ask John that.

‘Paul did not want me to go, but after talking to Mr Lerner and the manager here I realised it was an opportunity I could not ignore.

'There was no problem between Paul and I. Absolutely not.'

Having spent an hour or so in Friedel’s company, it is hard to imagine anyone ever disliking him.

England cricket going to ITALY

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Cricket is finally getting noticed in Italy, more than 100 years after it helped introduce football to the country. A group of British expatriates set up Genoa Cricket and Athletic Club in the Italian port in 1893 and it was only when English doctor James Richardson Spensley joined a few years later that football was added to the programme. Spensley became known as one of the fathers of Italian football and the sport swept the nation, leaving cricket with little recognition except for its continued presence in the full name of top-flight football side Genoa Cricket and Football Club. Now a new breed of expatriates in Italy, from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh, are putting cricket back into the limelight. Asian influence The lucrative new Indian Premier League found its way on to Italian satellite television in June and famed newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport has carried stories about the game. "There are loads of people playing cricket in the streets," the Italian cricket federation's president Simone Gambino said. Around 400,000 people from South Asia live in Italy and the federation estimates that further arrivals, despite the government's crackdown on illegal immigration, could lead to 1,000 new clubs. Italy beat the Netherlands, above, in July in the European Division One final [GALLO/GETTY] National hopes The national team, made up largely of players from Asian, Australian and South African backgrounds, hope one day to qualify for the World Cup. They beat the Netherlands, who have played in three World Cups, in the International Cricket Council's (ICC) European Division One championship in Ireland in July. "Thirty years looks to be about right for us to reach the World Cup" said Gambino. "We are about 27 in the world rankings and all it takes is for the World Cup to expand and for us to improve a bit," Gambino added. There are only 10 full members of the ICC where the funding is concentrated. Italy are associate members along with nations such as Ireland and Scotland, who have reached World Cups. Gambino is irked by the fact that Zimbabwe remain full members despite having to practically pull out of international cricket because of the political crisis there. "Take Ireland and Scotland. "They are now definitely better than Zimbabwe. If Zimbabwe played Italy in a series of five matches, we would certainly win one game yet they are full members," he said. No funding The lack of funding in Italy is most noticeable when it comes to pitches. Cricket, even the one-day version, takes up a lot of time, as well as space which Italian parks do not generally allow for. The growing number of cricket teams often have to share with baseball sides or grab whatever piece of land they can. Kamal Kariyawasam, 50, is captain of Italian second division champions Kingsgrove. "Pitches are the biggest problem," said the Sri-Lankan born player, who has seen cricket in Italy grow from four or five teams in the early 1980s to a three-division league today. Fairytale victory On Sunday in the west coast town of Grosseto, third-division Azzurra completed a fairytale victory in the season-ending final of the Twenty-20 Italian Cup which featured 24 teams from across the country. "The increase is down to the immigrants but not totally. "Among the lads training with the juniors at Kingsgrove there are also three Italians and a Peruvian," Kariyawasam added. However, most football-mad Italians still look utterly perplexed when told that test cricket lasts five days and that there are 10 ways to get out, suggesting that cricket may have a long wait to really take hold in the country.

Siddons, bc coach sanguine about NZ series

Dhaka, Sept 22 – Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons believes the players selected for the squad are good enough to do well in the ensuring home series against New Zealand despite losing seven top cricketers to breakaway Indian Cricket League.

"I am excited. Disappointed that we have lost some players, but the players who have come in we are going to look at them anyway.

"I think we have picked a strong side and hopefully a one that is good enough to beat New Zealand," Australian coach Siddons said to reporters at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Monday.

The coach, however, was a bit worried over the team composition. "It will take a fair bit of thinking to rearrange the things. Roqibul (Hassan) is probably the biggest concern at the moment as he is our best player at the moment and he is injured."

The Tigers had stretch and nets on the first day of the training ahead of next month's home series. But seven of the 24 cricketers named in the provisional squad missed the first day's training.

Middle-order batsman Rajin Saleh and spinner Enamul Haq Jr along with five academy cricketers Imrul Kayes, Naeem Islam, Shamsur Rahman, Suhrawardi Shuvo and Mahbubul Alam Robin, who are touring Sri Lanka, were absent.

The players sported red and green T-shirts, and the national flags on their forehead during the practice, apparently to get over the shock of the exodus to India.

New Zealand are scheduled to arrive on Sept 30 to play three one-day internationals and two Tests.

Captain Mohammad Ashraful, who returned home in the morning from England, also joined the camp, but did not talk to the reporters.

Unconfirmed reports say he was allegedly involved with the players' move to the ICL.

Asked if he believed Ashraful pulled the strings behind the scenes, Siddons said, "There is no way I will be saying that. I think Ash(raful) is a pretty honest person. As soon as he was approached, he let everyone know and discussed that openly with them and I think he has made the right decision."

The 44-year old also said that he had informed BCB cricket operations chairman Gazi Ashraful Hossain Lipu about the probable moves of the players to the ICL during the tour of Australia last month.

"As soon as I'd heard there were talks about it, I informed the board. I wasn't looking for names or confirmation. I think the players had an offer given to them and were in talks. Since I knew it, I had informed the board."

On whether Ashraful needs a break from captaincy, Siddons said, "I don't think so. He has comeback pretty fresh and looks very happy to me. A little bit tired, but he looks quite happy and I'm still hoping for the best of Ashraful."

"In the nets he keeps showing us that he can do the job."

After two disappointing performances against Australia, Siddons told reporters that Ashraful should take a break from captaincy, prompting the Bangladesh Cricket Board to warn him.

He was told that he should talk to the board, not the media, if he felt he had to say anything as serious about the players.

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