SAINTS star Wayne Bridge is among 11 England footballers to sign up for a £1m villa on a luxurious island in Dubai.

David Beckham, Jo Cole, Kieron Dyer and Ashley Cole have joined the St Mary's 22-year-old and put their names down for one of the apartments on Palm Island, situated on the Jumeirah coast in the Arabian Gulf.

The villas, which the footie stars have snapped up for half price, are to be built on a man-made, palm tree-shaped island and will be inhabited as soon as the billion-dollar resort is finished in two years' time.

As well as their own bit of private beach, the celebrities' pads will also feature a swimming pool and they will be able to choose their home from a choice of 28 architectural styles.

The discount is believed to have been offered to the footballers by Dubai's Crown Prince General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum after they paid a visit to The Palm's sales office during their warm-up camp in Dubai before last year's World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea.

They took a computerised virtual tour of the island to see what it would look like once completed.

The resort, which will be three-and-a-half miles wide with 17 "fronds" in the shape of a palm, is being built with rock and sand dredged from the Gulf.

It will feature 2,000 villas, 40 hotels, cafes, shops and a marina as well as a monorail system which will run along the main causeway.

David Manasse, Bridge's agent, last night confirmed the star had splashed out on the property but refused to comment further.

A second similar island is being planned along the coast at Jebel Ali and will be finished by 2007.