Gary Neville won the Treble with Manchester United, and amassed 85 caps for England but his finest achievement might turn out to be something completely different.
A highly successful player, Neville has since become a coach, manager and pundit, as well as the driving force behind Salford City FC.
Speaking to FourFourTwo though, the 50-year-old explained why hes just as proud of a project that until now had nothing to do with football.
Gary Neville: university founder
Back in 2017, Neville, his brother Phil and fellow Class of 92 team-mates Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt co-founded University Academy 92, in partnership with Lancaster University.
The higher education institution opened next to Old Trafford cricket ground in 2019, initially offering degrees in accounting and finance, business studies, journalism, media and communications, physical education and sports science.
This week, UA92 also launched its first business of football degree, giving students the opportunity to learn a whole range of skills that could help them gain a career connected to the beautiful game.
Its been on our minds for a couple of years, Gary Neville told FFT about the new course.
At the beginning we didnt want to be pigeonholed into people thinking Oh, theyre just a football university with the Class of 92, so we stayed away from football.
But whats become apparent in the last two years is I think were best placed to deliver this degree and talk about football, not just with our ownership group of me, Ryan, Scholesy, Nicky Butt and Phil, but also the connections we have in football.
Weve got Altrincham FC, Salford City, Manchester United, the Wheelchair Football Association and the EFL all contributing towards this, which is very bespoke and talks about the different areas of football.
There are so many different areas now within football football clubs are property developers, theyre concert holders, they have NFL games, theyre content and production units, theyre on documentaries, they deliver YouTube and journalism and magazines.
If you think of all the jobs now that exist in the sphere of football, you need people whove got that passion for the sport, and that understanding of the different areas, from financial to operations, to analytics to fan engagement, to community to the womens game, to all the things that inform football.
"Greatest thing I've done"
The course will touch upon many of those areas, plus how data analysis is used for player recruitment, with the Class of 92 and experts from the world of football due to visit to give guest lectures and pass on their knowledge.
Neville hopes the course will inspire students and give them a pathway to a career in an industry that so many young people aspire to work in.
UA92 is probably the greatest thing weve ever done, the greatest thing Ive ever done, he said.
We came up with this idea of a university seven years ago to impact young people. The Class of 92 were born out of people believing in us, teaching us, mentoring us in the right way, showing us the right standards.
We feel we do that at UA92. Its a very bespoke, different type of university and we set it up to give back to young people.
This course now brings in football too, but originally it was around the idea of believing in young people, giving them a chance.
People say to me What will you look back upon, the moment that youre not here any more? and I genuinely do believe it could be UA92.
The degree will begin in September, with applications now open. For more information, visit UA92.ac.uk
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