CHRISTIAN Fuchs, who helped Leicester City become Premier League champions last season, had some good news for budding young footballers when he launched the Bracknell branch of the Fox Soccer Academy at the Larges Lane club last Thursday, writes Dave Wright.

It was originally intended to open to those aged 12 to 15, but on the night the Austrian defender decided to extend it from 10 to 16 years.

“We want to give as many youngsters, boys and girls, the opportunity to receive some first-class coaching,” he said.

The link between Fox Academy and Bracknell Town was forged by Sean Faulkner, a highly-respected football conditioning coach who works for the academy and who has had long local connections since attending Bullbrook Primary and Brakenhale schools.

Sean has been working with Fox’s head coach, Mark Smith, who has coached at Crystal Palace, as well as teams in Greece, Egypt and Australia.

Smith said: “We have been working for Fox in New York and decided to bring it here to Bracknell.

“We felt it is a bit too far in distance from the pro clubs like Swindon, Oxford and Reading and West London clubs, and we believe Bracknell is big catchment area to find players.

“Our goal is to open up doors, as we have different links and pathways into top football.”

The Academy is Fuch’s personal project and is not associated, or connected to Leicester City.

Fuchs added: “We will be kind of eyes and ears for any club because our belief is there is a lot of talent out there to be discovered.”

He confirmed he is not a coach, adding: “I will leave that to my coaches. I am still a footballer and I want to be on the pitch playing with the kids.”

He added: “I am impressed, it (the Larges Lane ground) is a great facility. The place still has to be fully developed obviously, but the plans are great and we are definitely looking forward to working here.

“It is something that will continue not for just one period, but longer, maybe for a couple of years.”

Bracknell chairman Kayne Steinborn-Busse commented that they are looking forward to working with Fox Academy.

“We are going through an evolution, changing and raising the bar with some of our teams, certainly with our youth teams,” he told the News.

“We want to spread the net a bit wider to make sure we are finding all the talent out there.

“With guys like these and the academies, we hope they will attract players to this club who in the past have gone to our rival local clubs.

“It will also be an opportunity for them to see our new facilities and what we are about as a club. The aim is to grow our teams and grow our numbers with the right kids.

“We are are looking to increase the number of girls teams we have at the club.

“While last year we just had our ladies team, this year we have three girls teams and want to continue to grow that, but we can only do that if we have managers to run the teams, and we need more volunteers to be able to do that.”

The first Fox Academy session at Larges Lane will be on Wednesday, January 18, from 4.30 to 6.30pm and will initially run until March 22.