Football legends help to open Bluewater's tech enhanced football dome

KentOnline / KMTV

To christen the new pitch, influencers, musicians, freestylers and former professionals held a tournament.

Transcript

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.

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