Forty-five children from Rednock School enjoyed a sports tour of a lifetime to the illustrious Villarreal CF football club in Spain, where they lived the lives of professional footballers for five amazing days.

The football development tour was organised by PE teacher Alex Sykes in collaboration with specialist sports tour provider inspiresport.

Former Forest Green star and new manager of Southern League side Bishops Cleeve, Sykes, said: “Having been to Valencia with a sixth form group a few years ago in a trip organised by inspiresport, we thought that this time we would sample the facilities available at Villarreal.

“Our trip was tailor made just for us and our schedule was action packed so the pupils could get as much out of every second as possible. It was first class.

“There were so many highlights to the tour. One of the best being the time spent with the Villarreal first team when by happy coincidence the students and the first team finished training sessions at the same time.

“Our students got lots of autographs and (Spain World Cup winner) Juan Capdevilla even swapped his shirt with one of the boys.

“The time taken by these professionals was a credit to them.”

“The boys even got interviewed for Football Mondial about the player Santiago, who has been a long term injury worry for the club. The students were able to meet him and also be filmed whilst he was signing autographs.”

Whilst in Spain the pupils of Rednock were trained by Villarreal’s professional coaching staff and enjoyed rigorous daily training sessions which tour leader, Sykes, noted resulted in a huge increase in skill levels.

“The students also had the bonus of the whole cultural experience,” he said.

“This included seeing first hand how a La Liga football club works, from the stadium tour, to individual coaching, as well as witnessing the first team and B and C teams train, work and live at very close proximity.

“The La Liga match against Malaga was also fantastic.”

Tom Shorey, Managing Director for inspiresport, said: “Our main objective in partnership with the professional clubs is to make a difference to young people’s lives through providing unique access for all standards of players to the top domestic and international clubs across the world.”