Former Reggae Boy Claude Davis is a part-owner of a Florida-based football academy that recently signed a five-year deal with the 2019/2020 Premier League champions, Liverpool FC.

Davis, 41, represented Portmore United, Preston Northend, Crystal Palace, Sheffield United and Derby County in a career spanning more than a decade. The towering defender also represented Jamaica 69 times between 2000 and 2012.

These days, Davis is part owner and technical director of the Liverpool International Academy of Central Florida and revealed the deal with the now 19-time English champions.

“Everything that we do comes from the Liverpool Academy in England. It's a pathway for us to try and do things the right way,” Davis told the Jamaica Observer.

“I have been working here for five years and I try to implement stuff. You know I play all my life in England and I see the ways the academies run. I try to do that here, but unfortunately, we do not have the financial backing.”

After approaching Liverpool FC with their proposal, the club responded positively, he said.

“We had a meeting with Liverpool, like six, seven months ago and we explained to them, lay out the vision and the plans we have, and they came back to us as they loved it and they wanted to be a part of it. So we signed a five-year contract with Liverpool to use the name,” he said.

“It's not just their name, but their curriculum as well, and they will send coaches over here three times a year to work with my coaches, teach them the right way, help the coaches to deliver the training sessions, the same sessions the academy in Liverpool is working with.”