TEN budding goalkeepers have been signed up to professional football clubs with the help of Barnsley ex-pro Paul Heritage.

The youngsters train with Just4Keepers UK, which is run by Paul, and have been signed to clubs including Barnsley, Leeds, Rotherham, Doncaster and Bradford City.

Paul, of Green Acres, Penistone, set up the group, which is part of a franchise, and now coaches 160 keepers in and around Barnsley.

Paul, an England Youth International who played for Sheffield United, Barnsley and Carlisle United, said: "I started off helping the local football team in Oxspring and coaching the local keepers and looked at how I could take it further and stumbled across the franchise.

"Now I have 170 students, it's just gone mental over the last three years.

"The kids love it and it's quite rewarding for me to see and it makes it worthwhile."

Paul hosts five sessions in Barnsley as well as others in Sheffield and Rotherham and gave up his job as a roofer in April.

He says it is a good way to be involved in the sport after his own football career ended prematurely because of a stress fracture in his back.

Barnsley sessions: Fridays, Shaw Lane, 4.15 to 5.30pm, 5.30 to 6.45pm, 6.45 to 8pm; Saturdays, Oxspring Playing Fields, 9.45 to 11am, 11 to 12.15pm