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The Arsenal Double Club

June 4, 2014

The Arsenal Double Club is a unique initiative in language teaching through football.

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Per Mertesacker Arsenal London
Image: DW/M. Etzold

On a training ground at the Bethnal Green Academy, a school in East-London, youngsters aged 12 to 15 are not only learning football but language skills as well.

It's not unusual to hear the kids using German words like "schneller" or "Kopfball." Arsenal's German stars Lukas Podolski, Mesut Özil, Per Mertesacker and Serge Gnabry offer encouragement as they help to produce teaching material centered around football. The Arsenal Double Club Languages programme was developed in conjunction with the Goethe-Institut London and UK-German Connection.

As Arsenal coach Arsène Wenger once said: "When I learned English I never imagined that I would manage Arsenal Football Club. But just to try to learn it changed of course completely my life.” Kick off reporters Matthias Frickel and Thomas Lemmer spent six months investigating a football youth program that is trying to broaden young minds.