Bobby Zamora

Footballers’ homes for all… in Luton

Footballers have dreams too. Now, Ferdinand, Zamora and Nobel are making their dreams come true, building 1,300 ‘Footballers’ homes’ for private and social renting. Bobby Zamora (Brighton), Mark Noble (West Ham) and Rio Ferdinand, now retired, may live in luxury now, but they all grew up on London council estates and now they are ‘giving back’ with their new project to build private and social and rented housing. The project has been launched through the Legacy Foundation, the brainchild of Rio Ferdinand, who grew up on a council estate in Peckham, south-east London, and it will work with his youth services foundation. While plenty of other footballers’ homes are glitzy mansions, these three say that they want to help tackle Britain’s housing crisis by building thousands of affordable homes across the country, complete with sporting academies where they will offer coaching to youngsters. Mark Noble, from Canning Town, east London, who started at West Ham aged 13, said, “At first we were thinking 20, 30 homes, but then we realised that wouldn’t make a difference to anyone. We want to make a big difference in housing.” The Kingsland site in Houghton Regis near Luton, will include a creche, a leisure centre with a gym and swimming…

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