Brad Friedel admits there could be an opportunity down the road for Aston Villa to form a partnership with his US-based goalkeepers academy.

"I'm here to play football," said Friedel, who has agreed a three-year deal with Villa. "I'm sure as time goes on we'll have a chat about it at some stage. We'll see, but first and foremost I'm here to play football for him, not to talk about youth academies.

"It won't be used as a feeder academy though, no. I've set it up as the first ever football academy that's free of charge to scout kids from around the world.

"We've just had our first two players signing professional contracts with a club in Belgium.

"It's tremendous so if I can pop a few more of those in other countries around the world that would be tremendous, but my first focus is on playing for Villa."