England star Jordan Pickford and This Is England stars united for new Grimsby sports zone

England goalkeeper, Jordan Pickford has been invited to Grimsby to be guest of honour for the opening of a new sports area.

Work on the new PlayZone in Grant Thorold Park, on Grimsby's East Marsh is about to start. It will be run by The Shalom youth centre, said its founder, Canon John Ellis.

He told how the England star was chosen because he is "the double" of Grimsby's own screen star Thomas Turgoose, who was a member of The Shalom youth club during his days growing up on the East Marsh.

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Jordan and Thomas are well known to one another through a bizarre invitation to a birthday party where Thomas pretended to be Jordan because of the uncanny likeness. The two look-a-likes, one famous for his England goalkeeper shirt and the other who began his acting career with hit series This Is England, struck up a unique bond.

Ahead of his date in Grimsby, ace goalkeeper Jordan will be aiming to save his Everton team a place in the Premier League as well as seeking glory with England in the Euro 2024 international football competition in Germany in June.

Fans are hoping he will arrive at Grant Thorold Park with a winning medal. Canon John Ellis said he is looking forward to the PlayZone sports area being renovated over the summer. It will be managed by Shalom youth centre and include facilities for football and basketball.

He told Grimsby Live: "Thomas knows Jordan Pickford. He agreed to be a look-a-like for him if he made a donation to The Shalom, which we gratefully received. We are looking forward to having them both here when it opens later in the summer."

He added: "Thomas has been a great ambassador for us. I introduced him to Shane Meadows, the director of This is England when he came to us looking for young people to be in his film. You can still see how Tommy got on with his first audition. It is still on YouTube.

"We were a bit apprehensive when the director came to us. The first thing Thomas said was no - because he was going fishing! But he hung around. Thomas went up to the director and said: "Are you running this thing? How much will you pay if I stick around to listen? A fiver?'"

John added: "So the director gave him £5 and asked him to be in an audition. Thomas told him he wasn't planning on sticking around because he was off fishing. But he went anyway."

Thomas has remained friends with the rest of the This is England cast, including Stephen Graham, Vicky McClure, Andrew Shim, Andrew Ellis and Joseph Gilgun.

The Grimsby actor has spoken about the support he received from Shalom and other agencies as he grew up. At a guest appearance at Grimsby NSPCC he said: "The reason I wanted to help the NSPCC is because me, my mum and my brothers all had visits from social workers and similar charities when we were growing up on the East Marsh. As a kid, I took that for granted, but now I feel like I owe it to them to help out now I'm an adult and a dad.

"Seeing the hard work these people put into their day to day lives makes me appreciate all that help I had a little bit more." He added: "I was a little s*** at that age and people like the NSPCC were so helpful to us and I want to do anything I can to help."

Thomas, dad to Teddy, two, said: "I found it really special when I took Teddy to one of their events on the East Marsh. To see kids playing and enjoying themselves is great. It also helps kids to take pride in their area, which is something I wish I would've done when I was their age."

Canon Ellis said he is looking forward to the investment on Grant Thorold Park in the summer, which has been funded by The Premier League, The F.A. and the Football Foundation.

The PlayZone aim is to focus on funding community-led spaces, with an emphasis on refurbished safe and accessible mini pitches that will allow priority groups to be more active.

The Grant Thorold ‘PlayZone’ multi-use games area (MUGA) will deliver the full refurbishment of the existing tarmacked sports area in the park, and will include basketball hoops, benches, goals, fencing and LED floodlighting. The focus is on areas where people may face barriers in being physically active, opportunities for women and girls, and people with long-term health conditions and disabilities.

A series of engagement exercises has helped the design process of the PlayZone, such as surface type, line markings and equipment, and how the smaller details would fit with the wider requirements of the project and the local community. Dean Evison, PlayZone Programme Officer, said: “PlayZone will have line marking for football and basketball games, and we have also seen requests for other activities, such as outdoor exercise classes.

“The PlayZone pitch is approximately 30 by 20 metres, so not for affiliated competitions. The development is around supporting recreational football and a range of other sports. The idea is to get people into activities, and to engage the local community. The emphasis is on ‘free to use’ community access, with a booking system to ensure fairness and safety. PlayZone will also offer the opportunity for more formal sessions to be held, where groups can book for a small fee.”

The project will be funded with 75% of the total cost from the Football Foundation, with the remaining 25% from NELC funding sources. This includes grant funding from the Safer Streets project.