Homegrown stars Jacob Ramsey and Laura Blindkilde Brown visited the site of Aston Villa’s new Inner City Academy on Thursday.
The players were accompanied by CEO Christian Purslow and Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street on a tour of the facility, which is due to fully open this summer.
As one of the club’s most recent Academy graduates, Ramsey believes the new Academy in Aston will benefit aspiring footballers from across the city.
He said: “Driving past to go to Villa Park for every home game you can see it being built and getting bigger, so to finally come here and see how it’s developing is really good.
“If this was built five or 10 years ago when I was coming through in the Academy, I live 15 minutes away from here so it would have made a big difference to my parents.
“The location is perfect with train stations and buses next to Villa Park. It’s going to be really good, and hopefully, the kids will love it too.”
Both Ramsey and Blindkilde Brown honed their skills at Bodymoor Heath, and the latter believes having a more central location will be an inspiration to local players.
“Being in Birmingham, it will allow a lot more boys and girls to access this facility,” she said.
“It gives young people an opportunity to train here and join Aston Villa. It’s really good for the club and its future.”
The speed of progress made at the Brookvale site has delighted Mr Street, who says the facility will be an asset to both the club and the local community.
“It’s a brilliant project,” he said.
“We looked here less than a year ago and talked about what could happen, and the speed with which it’s happened has been incredible.
“It’s brilliant for aspiring youngsters coming through and we’ve heard the players talk about what it would have meant to them to have this.
“We also know it’s a really brilliant facility for the community as well; we’re going to have local schools and residents who can use it.
“There will be some young Brummies who will come here and end up being stars of the future and play for the first team, as we see with Jacob and Laura here today.”
