City stars kicked football into touch today and tried their hand at other sports to launch the groundbreaking "Premier League 4 Sport" partnership with the Government at the Stadium.

Roque Santa Cruz, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Abdi Ibrahim and Greg Cunningham all made the switch to join the fun scheme, offering young people the chance to get involved with Olympic sports.

Olympian Andrea Holt was among guests who enjoyed the official project launch before local youngsters had an enthusiastic go at badminton, judo, table tennis or volleyball.

Judo champion Ben Quilter, fresh from winning gold in Turkey, showed off his skills to admirers including City Ladies captain Charlotte Farrell and Northern Ireland's Kim Turner.

The Blues quartet of players started out on volleyball, with junior members from the top Tameside club, before testing out their abilities at the other activities on offer.

It's really good that kids are given the chance to be involved in different sports, and it's another example of how close City are to the people

Abdi Ibrahim

Former England table tennis No.1 Andrea, who contested the Barcelona and Atlanta Olympics, is now regional development officer and said: "We need to encourage youngsters into different sports." 

City in the Community, backed by Youth Sport Trust and Sport England, are linking up with community sport clubs to offer opportunities to young people in their local areas.

Stephen Everall, project co-ordinator, said: "The project offers young people the opportunity to get involved in the top end of sport, providing fun interactive sessions with first-class coaching.

"Manchester has thousands of budding young athletes and we are certain we can help them evolve through this the project and raise awareness of all four sports."