William is set to assume the role from his uncle, the Duke of York, in May and proved his own footballing ability when he trained with first-team players at Charlton Athletic.

The visit to south-east London also gave the 23-year-old the chance to see Charlton's community programme in action as he then took his turn in goal for a penalty shoot-out involving local children.

"I don't want to just be a figurehead, I want to be helpful in in any way I can," the Prince said afterwards.

"I want to contribute and get more kids involved in football. The power of football is huge and I think that needs to be harnessed.

"The community programme here at Charlton is awesome. Everybody is doing an amazing job and you can see the kids absolutely love it."

William began his training session wearing his Eton house colours, but was later presented with a Charlton shirt with Wales W and the number two on the back.

However, he is actually an Aston Villa fan and when asked what he thought of the Addicks he joked: "They are not as good as Villa, although I shouldn't say that because Alan Curbishley will probably kill me!

"I support Villa because that was the first match I went to and the fans there are great. It's also the closest team to where I live in Gloucestershire, although some people think that's debatable."