COACHES from the most famous football club in the world have been in Bradford this week putting youngsters from one junior football side through their paces.

Young players from Alpha United Juniors, based in Lidget Green, have been enjoying a special week of training this week in the hands of Real Madrid’s Academy.

The Fundación Real Madrid Clinics is Real Madrid’s official football academy, which takes Madrid’s Youth Academy’s training philosophy to junior clubs across Europe.

As part of the experience, children aged seven to 15 get to take part in five days of fun and professional training designed to improve their physical attributes and also their footballing skills, are provided with nutritional lunches, and also receive a Real Madrid football school kit, an Adidas football, and a Real Madrid drinks bottle.

Alpha United Juniors got involved with the Galácticos after attracting the club’s attention by picking up two national awards, including Club of the Year at the FA Community Awards.

Training has been taking place at Alpha Unite Juniors’ home pitch in Summerville Road, before Tuesday’s heavy rain forced the practice to be moved onto the University of Bradford’s 3G pitch in Laisteridge Lane.

Mohammed Waheed, manager of Alpha United Juniors, said the camp has been “amazing”.

He said: “We started on Monday and it has been fantastic.

“The first day at our home pitch was amazing, the technology they have is so good.

“They have the best gadgets and techniques for training, and the children are absolutely loving it.

“You can see as they do the drills the children are getting better every day, and we have had a full attendance every day of 42 players coming down to train.

“They are putting on a variety of drills, ranging from agility runs to passing, moving into space, and more.

“Some of the balls have little microchips in them which can measure the speed and the swerve you put on shots, and they have trackers and heat maps to see how hard you are working, and machines with lights on designed to put you off and to find a pass, there is loads of different things all designed to test the children, every session has been something new and different.

“The coaches are loving it, we took them around Bradford, and they are loving the enthusiasm of the children, they said it’s the best group they have had.

“On Tuesday when it was really rainy and muddy they said in other countries the children wouldn’t want to play but our juniors just got stuck in.

“They said today and on Friday is when you will see how much the skills have developed and will see the full potential the children have, and we can already see it coming through.”

For more information about Alpha United Juniors and to sign your children up, visit alphaunitedjuniors.com.