Teenagers met their football heroes when they practised their skills at Tottenham Hotspur’s training ground.

Students from the Premier League club’s education and football development centre programme met Harry Kane, Ryan Mason and Christian Eriksen during the session at Hotspur Way.

The programme has been rolled out at six colleges including Barnet and Southgate College and The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London, which offers academy-standard football alongside BTEC qualifications.

The programme launched in 2010 and more than 550 people have taken part, with two going on to play for professional football teams and more than 20 being offered trials at professional sides.

Ross Embleton, a coach on the year course, said: “The course is a great way to offer teenagers not just a good standard of football but a good education at the same time and that is crucial.

“The system in the past has not been favourable to teenagers if they don’t quite make the footballing standard, but we have seen a soar in the number of teenagers going into higher education which is a tremendous compliment for our course.

“It was great for the students to meet the players who have come through the Tottenham Hotspur academy, which has produced first team players in past year.”

Mr Embleton was also hopeful that the programme can be rolled out in more colleges across London, having been introduced in Harrow and Epping at the start of this academic year.