England disappoint thousands of local children by only opening up training session to 500 fans… two weeks after 15,000 watched Germany at the same venue

Thousands of local children were disappointed after England training opened to just 500 fans.

Two weeks ago, Germany held a similar training at the same location where 15,000 people were on the stand. And FC Carl Zeiss Jena officials wanted a repeat as Gareth Southgate and his stars were put to the test on Tuesday.

With Harry Kane the main attraction after joining Bayern Munich and Jude Bellingham now one of the most famous players in Europe, they were confident England could also attract a big crowd.

However, only 500 people – the minimum requirement for mandatory open UEFA training – were allowed into the redeveloped ad hoc arena.

The club, who play in Germany’s fourth tier, have only just completed the finishing touches to the £50 million stadium, which will officially open with a match against Sampdoria.

The same venue welcomed 15,000 spectators when Germany trained two weeks ago

The minimum number of fans for an open UEFA training, 500, were allowed to attend

They believed that the increase in interest in the Three Lions would have meant a further 15,000 people would have attended as a result of the visit of Julian Nagelsmann’s men, who had previously stayed at the nearby England training base. But their hopes were dashed when those plans were rejected.

Instead, only 500 attended, filling a small but noisy pocket in the corner of the stadium.

For those who were able to get a ticket, Kane, Bellingham and the likes of Bukayo Sako put on a show, with a hotly contested head tennis competition.

Many wore Bayern shirts as chants of ‘Bellingham, Bellingham’ rang out in honor of Real Madrid’s former Borussia Dortmund man.

To the credit of players and staff, the 26-member group – who appeared to be in good spirits – came up to the fans at the end of the session and signed dozens of autographs.

England captain Harry Kane was among those signing autographs for the fans in attendance

Kane was in demand by Bayern Munich fans who wanted him to sign their replica shirts

English stars came by at the end of the session and signed dozens of autographs for the fans

A Carl Zeiss Jena official complained about this move. “It was very unfortunate,” he said.

‘We had 15,000 here for Germany and it was like a big festival.

‘We would have had the same number here for England, but we were told we could have a minimum of 500.’

An FA spokesperson said the event was jointly organized by the club, the FA and UEFA, adding that the governing body was unaware there would be such a huge demand locally.