Former Manchester United and Leeds midfielder Lee Sharpe is planning to launch soccer schools in South Africa.
Sharpe has one up and running in Cape Town as well as a prison team for young offenders, and hopes to have one in each South African province before the World Cup arrives in 2010.
Sharpe and a friend - former Manchester City player Greg Thompson - set up the non-profit making South Africa project after a US proposal for a commercial academy fell through.
Sharpe told the People: "We didn't set up the soccer schools to find young talent, but if there are players who are good then we will try to help them.
"We're trying to get kids out of the ghettos and a life of crime and off the streets. It's about trying to give them a little bit of hope.
"We're not making a quick hit before the World Cup and then getting out, but it is a good goal and focus for us."
