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Football focus: Arsenal's Crouch End academy
"I never thought of myself as a girl playing football. I was just a kid playing football with my friends."
These are the words of Arsenal Ladies striker Lianne Sanderson, a remarkable footballer from south London, who has set up her first football academy in Crouch End.
The 20-year-old, who scored 40 goals for her team last season in 41 appearances, wanted to give young people of all ages and abilities a place where they could go to have fun together.
After years of searching, Lianne went to view the North Middlesex Cricket Club, in Park Road, and found it the ideal place to start her academy as it is currently working towards becoming a centre of excellence.
The academy opened in February 2007 with a handful of budding footballers enrolled, but that number has steadily increased to 19 children, aged five to 11, who turn up once a week.
Miss Sanderson said: "Young people need somewhere safe where they can go to meet other young people and stop them from doing the wrong things. Coming to the academy is not just a case of developing football skills, you also develop social skills.
"And it doesn't matter how good you are, as long as you enjoy yourself and want to have fun - that's what my academy is all about."
The academy runs every Saturday and Lianne tries to take a hands-on approach to coaching the children herself.
She said: "It's not difficult switching between being a player and a coach, but it is wonderful to watch someone develop. These kids have progressed so much in such a short space of time and have grown so much more confident. That's why I do this.
"I'm not going to knock David Beckham, because I think his academies are wonderful and I'm sure he's not there as much as he'd like to be, but I'd like to think my academy is different because I am really involved.
"I don't want the kids to look at me like some big star. I want them to be able to approach and talk to me. At the same time, I want to give the young people something to aspire to."
8:54am Monday 12th May 2008
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