How did the idea for Legacy come about?

I used to travel with Rio every day for a year and a bit to training. It was an hour and half journey there and back, so we’d sit there and discuss life – we solved all the world’s problems by the end by the way! We both were used to going to little charity events where you smile, take some photos and you don’t really feel like you’ve made a real difference. With Legacy, when it comes to it, you can see that you’ve majorly changed people’s lives, and that really means a lot to me.

What do you think makes a community, rather than an estate?

A happy environment is key. I grew up in east London and for me it seems strange that I used to come home from school, go straight outside and play football on the street in between the cars. Literally kids on the whole street were out. But it was just a great environment to be in, and I think a good environment is really important [for the place where you live and spend your time].

We had a youth city at the end of the road and it was just such a good place to be. There was stuff to do, an unbelievable indoor basketball court, mentors who were there to help you out. There’d be us playing sports in there, but also other kids doing their homework and things. That’s what we envision our Legacy sites will have - a place where everyone can go and be as one.

What role can sport and leisure play in building a community?

Sport and leisure can be a unifying force. Legacy isn’t just going to be football. Everyone expects that because we’re involved, but so many people don’t play it. When we went to Central Bedfordshire we talked to a lot of kids. There’s a girl there who runs for England. She drives an hour because that’s the closest athletic track to where she lives in Houghton Regis. So we want to provide facilities for them. Even it’s 100 metres of track, we’ll try to put that down. There’ll be multi-sports facilities, a leisure centre on site, a swimming pool - lots of sports will be included.

In this digital age it’s harder to get people active, but we’re embracing technology as well. The Bedfordshire site is just down the road from a new Amazon office, which is massive [for local employment], so we want to have a learner class for the kids to come to our facility, where they can learn the skills that’ll get them a job in this day in age.

Can you explain the design of the site?

We’re quite fortunate the site itself is 22 hectares or thereabouts, so it’s a big, expansive space. That’s hard to find in places like London. From a design perspective, we want to make sure there’s lots of green space, because that’s really important for wellbeing. We don’t want it to be concrete blocks and typical 60s estates as such. Again, we want to create the feeling of a community. Everything will be connected. Our foundation and our school will be on site, and we’re working hard to make sure they’re at the heart of the community.

Have you worked closely with the architects?

Yes absolutely, but we’re still holding hands with the council, so it’s not just us designing it because we want those guys to be as happy with everything as we are. We’re not property developers and we’re not a housing association. The council are the ones who are getting the money, which is brilliant, so we want to work closely with them. In that way Legacy is pretty unique, but I think that benefits us. The scheme ticks so many boxes.

Are you confident others will try to use the Legacy model?

The financial model is groundbreaking. This will be replicated. We don’t need it to be through us. If someone else out there can create houses centred around communities, that’s superb.

Our focus is to nail this down and get this [first scheme] done, but we’re thinking ahead as well. We have a combined black book of people who can help in various ways. Not just footballers, but people from all industries. Captains of industry too.