The NFL Foundation, which is celebrating its three-year anniversary, is the first NFL charitable arm to be launched overseas.

The Prince met representatives from NFL UK and community partners to hear about the work being undertaken to help young people develop confidence and reach their potential through sport.

He asked the teenagers playing for their communities what it was they liked about the sport, how it differed from rugby and football and what skills they needed.

He told Ms Schecter that when he was younger he used to play the sport on the beach. “Once summer we had 12 of us on the beach, it was loads of fun,” he said.

But while he acknowledged that he would try his hand at most sports, he said he didn’t do any of them “very well”.

As patron of the Welsh Rugby Union, the Prince had met Rees-Zammit on more than one occasion, most recently when he took Prince George to watch Wales take on Argentina in the quarter final of the Rugby World Cup last October.

“Good to see you again, different guise!” he said as they were introduced again on Tuesday.

William asked which skills NFL were looking for and what the differences were between the two sports. “Is it like chalk and cheese?” he asked. “Do you come on for two minutes and just blitz it and go off again?”

The NFL has been playing regular-season games in London since 2007, with games being played this month at the Tottenham Hotspur and Wembley stadiums.

The NFL Foundation UK launched in 2021 in partnership with the Mayor of London’s Sport Unites fund and has since  received funding from Sport England to expand beyond London to Greater Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds through a partnership with the San Francisco 49ers.