Aston Villa keeper Brad Friedel has taken the academy system in America to task for charging players to join prestigious clubs.

The World Cup 2002 hero has his own youth soccer school in Ohio, with one graduate already linking up with a European club - keeper Patrick Lane at Club Brugge - with expansion to other American sites and a Mexican campus planned.

"The system is broken in the U.S.," Friedel told the Daily Mail. "Columbus Crew are the only club who don’t charge their under 18 and under 16 players. - some kids are paying as much as $5,000 a year just to play for a decent club team."

"So I decided to build my own academy and it’s the first academy in the U.S. that is free of charge," added Friedel, who has put up for the $10.5 million non-profit facility. "We recruit kids for their talent rather than their ability to pay."

(source: Soccer365.com)