To christen the new pitch, influencers, musicians, freestylers and former professionals held a tournament.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Zip-lining, a cinema, a trampoline park, mini-golf, and now, Bluewater has expanded once more
00:06 with its own football arena.
00:08 International stars Rio Ferdinand, Mark Noble, Bobby Zamora and Roberto Carlos arrived at
00:13 the Bluewater shopping centre this week to promote their new venture, Ballers, a 3,000
00:18 square foot dome featuring a high-tech pitch and skill zone.
00:23 This features a sprint speed timer, football sharpshooter games, footy tennis and even
00:27 a robotic keeper to test your skills.
00:31 Since the facility lets you replay your best moments from the game, we asked Bobby Zamora
00:36 what moments from his long career at clubs like Fulham, West Ham, Tottenham and Brighton
00:41 he would choose to relive.
00:42 Anything I could replay, any moment I could replay.
00:46 Do you know what, walking out of Wembley for England.
00:49 If I could go back, absorb that again, the first time walking out of Wembley for your
00:53 country as a kid, always dreaming about it and having that, you know, just is an amazing
00:58 feeling, a real dream come true, real cliche if it really is and that, if I could go back,
01:04 just relive that one moment again, that would be perfect.
01:07 Six-a-side AstroTurf pitch is equipped with a Premier League changing room and realistic
01:12 crowd noise and the skill zone features games designed to improve your physical and mental
01:17 abilities.
01:18 One of those was the passing zone where players had to hit as many targets as they could.
01:22 With one former pro racking up 58 in one minute.
01:25 And now I'm going to give it a try for myself.
01:28 And five, two, one.
01:30 And hit.
01:31 Well, the less said about that, the better.
01:37 And my luck with the Robo goalkeeper was about the same, ending my Premier League dreams
01:41 for good.
01:42 Ballers also offer football coaching for kids of all ages and abilities in group sessions
01:47 or position-specific clinics.
01:49 To open the dome, a six-a-side tournament called Battle of the Ballers was held with
01:53 four teams of former pros, influencers and Charlton Athletic squad members.
01:58 I spoke to football YouTuber Jules from Goals Front 3, a channel that does football trivia
02:03 with players like Rudiger and coaches like Mikel Anteta.
02:06 So who do you think out of the players, like the former stars that are coming today, they
02:09 might perform the best?
02:10 I don't know.
02:11 I'm going to be biased.
02:12 I'm a Real Madrid fan, so I'm probably going to say Roberto Carlos.
02:15 Like, come on, big baller, big baller.
02:18 It's going to be unbelievable.
02:19 Like, if you look everywhere, like, everything's high-tech, perfect.
02:22 It's going to be a good one.
02:24 After all the players had arrived, they emerged out of the tunnel to christen the new pitch,
02:28 while the attendees looked on from the balconies.
02:30 According to Rio Ferdinand, Ballers is designed to make anyone feel like a star, which is
02:35 pretty tough when the best left-back in history is right next to you.
02:38 Finn McDermott for KMTV.