Imagine playing the sport you love for a living, having a personal chef and a personal driver.

That’s just a few of the perks of being a top English Premier League soccer player.

And they’re the quirky facts Adelaide ruckman Reilly O’Brien learnt during a special tour of EPL club Aston Villa’s headquarters during the Christmas break.

O’Brien travelled to Birmingham in the UK for former teammate Alex Keath’s wedding which he attended with two other former Crows Jake Kelly and Luke Lowden.

Not wanting to miss a beat with their off-season training programs, Keath reached out to former Australian captain and ex-Aston Villa player Mile Jedinak and managed to get the players an opportunity to train at the EPL club’s facility.

“We were up in Birmingham for three or four days for Alex Keath’s wedding to (partner) Laura,” O’Brien said.

“It was teed up through Alex, he reached out to Mile Jedinak, using that Australian connection and asked on the off chance.

“It is a different world over there in terms of the amount of money they get and the personal resources they have.

“The players all have their own chefs, all have their own drivers to take them to training.

“Their property steward is Australian, so he showed us around and said there’s some players who live in London and drive the two-and-a-half hours to the club every day in a private van with a driver and the van is decked out with a bed in the back.”

Although O’Brien didn’t meet or train alongside any of Villa’s players, he was given a full tour of the club, and used the pitch and gym for a full afternoon.

“Unfortunately we didn’t meet any of the players, but it’s cool just to get exposure to their facilities and get an insight into what they do, they’re at the pinnacle of world sport,” O’Brien said.

“They’ve got four pitches, including a synthetic pitch, then they’ve got their indoor, heated pitch as well, because the weather can be pretty cold over there.

“They have big club rooms and the facility is just facing the pitches with big glass windows, a massive gym with all the gear.

“We had a program (from our clubs) to follow, so we did a big footy session and running session on the pitches, then we had a bit of a penalty shoot-out and I was in the gym for about an hour and a half.”O’Brien said he wasn’t a “die-hard” soccer fan but kept up to date with Arsenal and Aston Villa’s progress.

“I do follow the EPL a bit, I had an Aston Villa top growing up and an Arsenal top growing up, so those two were my teams,” he said.

“It was good to see (Villa’s) facilities and I got to an Arsenal game while I was in London, we watched Arsenal versus West Ham as well and the atmosphere there was fantastic.”

O’Brien returned to West Lakes with his teammates for the second half of pre-season earlier this month and said he was enjoying being back.

“I was overseas for about two-and-a-half weeks and I would get up at 6am to go running and train, that was pretty cold, but I had all the long skins, the gloves and beanie,” O’Brien said.

“I am super excited for the (football) year, the whole squad is really fit and healthy and ready to take that next step.”