Real Madrid legend Toni Kroos gives training session to Bradford football Instagram brothers

Luca and Toby Reynolds, aged 14 and 11, have an Instagram account – @lucareynolds7 - with more than 60,000 followers, which is run by their father, Michael.

He says: “Just before COVID started, my son had started playing football and getting into it. I used to play myself, so I would just try to teach him the skills I knew, and he picked them up fairly easy. So we'd start posting.

"I always said I'd love to have videos of when I was younger, doing all these kinds of skills, so that's the reason we did it in the first place, but then it started getting a bit of attention over time, and then we just started to up the game, if you like, doing harder skills.”

Videos on the page show the lads doing a variety of football skill moves including the hocus pocus, the flip flap and freestyle kick-ups.

Michael, 41, who works in IT for Yorkshire Water, played for Bradford City as a boy aged 10 to 15, and Luca was previously part of Manchester City’s programme for developing young talent.

"It is at that point now where we've said, ‘come away from academy football and just enjoy it again with no pressure and we'll see where we're at in a few years’,” says Michael.

However, he can be full of confidence after gaining recognition from recently retired Word Cup-winning German international and former Real Madrid midfield star Toni Kroos.

Luca, Toby and Michael won a competition after submitting a video of all three of them kicking footballs and hitting targets at the same time, and Kroos invited them to the Spanish capital for a training session.

“He’s a legend and so it was amazing to meet him, and they got that private session with him. They'll always remember that,” says Michael.

"He was down to earth, he was really helpful with them and gave them advice and he put on a good session for them. We got an hour and a half with him.”

Kroos, he says, was giving them tips about body position and “little things that probably a lot of people wouldn't even think about… little bits of informationthat they can take away and learn from.”

The boys – who play for Idle and Thackley juniors – don’t support any particular team but Luca has a soft spot for Kevin de Bruyne, who recently left Man City, while Toby loves the club’s star striker Erling Haaland. They’ll be cheering for Bradford City in League One after the club’s long-awaited promotion, however, as they have got season tickets for the upcoming campaign.

Donna, their mother, is also proud of their success and sister Lyla, seven, is starting to play.

Grandad Steve loves it too. “He's always first to comment and phone us about a video if he likes it,” says Michael. “It keeps them entertained.”