Melbourne City Football Club Youth is the youth system of Melbourne City Football Club based in Cranbourne East, Melbourne. The youth teams consist of an under-23s team that competes in senior levels of soccer in Victoria; currently the Victorian Premier League 1, and a development squad of an under-21s team that competes in the under-23 levels of soccer in Victoria.
Melbourne City Academy was introduced in 2016 and are composed of four academy teams, ranking from under-14s to under-17s teams that compete in the youth National Premier Leagues Victoria leagues.
History
Early years (2011–2014) The team was founded in 2011 as Melbourne Heart Youth, the season after their senior side Melbourne City (then known as Melbourne Heart FC), made their A-League debut. The inaugural manager was John Aloisi before he accepted the role as head manager at the end of the 2011–12 season. From 2012 onwards, Joe Palatsides had been the manager. The youth team's first match was played in the 2011–12 against local rivals Melbourne Victory in a 2–0 win at John Cain Memorial Park.
Entry into National Premier Leagues (2014–2018) On 7 November 2014, it was confirmed that Melbourne City would compete in the NPL Victoria 1 competition from the 2015 season onwards. The team consists mainly of Melbourne City's youth team, which also competes in the A-League Youth. On top of this, Melbourne City opted to send a U-20 team to enter the concurrently-run development-level U-20 NPL league competition.
The team finished on top of the table of the 2014–15 National Youth League, tied with Brisbane Roar FC Youth on both points and goal difference but were awarded the title having scored a greater number of goals.
After several seasons competing in the NPL, Melbourne City announced they were expanding their participation to also enter teams into the U-18 and U-15 competitions. In February 2018, youth teams joined the National Premier Leagues for the under-20s and under-18s sides, with the U-18 side being managed by Davey van 't Schip (the brother of former manager John van 't Schip).
Players
Youth These players can also play with the senior squad and compete in the A-League Youth and the VPL 1.
Under-21s
Current staff
Head Coaches: Stuart McDonald Youth Head Coach Lewis Potter U21 Head Coach Leroy Almenara U18 Head Coach Frankie Barilla U16 Head Coach Andrej Maxsimov U15 Head Coach Christian Chiang Moroni U14 Head Coach Josh Sasic U13 Head Coach
Staff: James Jeggo Youth Assistant Coach Leroy Almenara U21 Assistant Coach Daniel Cappellaro U18-U15 Assistant Coach Marc Aloisio U15–U13 Assistant Coach
Honours Youth (Under-23s) A-League Youth Premiership Winners (2): 2016–17, 2017–18 Runners-up (1): 2018–19
A-League Youth Championship Winners (2): 2014–15, 2017 Runners-up (1): 2018
Victoria Premier League 2 Runners-up (1): 2022
Under-21s Victoria Premier League 1 U-23 Premiership Winners (1): 2023
Victoria Premier League 1 U-23 Championship Winners (5): 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2023 Runners-up (2): 2018, 2022
Victoria Premier League 2 U-23 Premiership Runners-up (1): 2022
Victoria Premier League 2 U-23 Championship Winners (1): 2022
Stadium The team hosts its home matches at CB Smith Reserve and Casey Fields. In previous years, home games have also been played at Epping Stadium, John Cain Memorial Park, John Ilhan Memorial Reserve and La Trobe University.
Team records A-League Youth
SeasonA-League YouthGrand FinalTop scorerPositionPlayer(s)GoalsLeague format2011–12188283537−2265th–Zac Walker72012–13188193234−2256th–Joshua Groenewald82013–14188464030+10285th–Marcus Schroen52014–151810534027+1335 1st –Wade Dekker9Conference format2015–1683141823−5103rdDid not qualify Wade Dekker Chris Cristaldo 42016–1785121812+6161st Champions Yusuf Ahmed 5
Football Victoria
SeasonFootball VictoriaTop scorerLeaguePositionPlayer(s)Goals20153NPL Victoria 2 West28135105645+11445thWade Dekker10201628144107045+25463rdChris Cristaldo102017NPL Victoria 2 East2811896849+1941 3rd Austin Wong9201828104146059+134 6th Moudi Najjar1420192895146058+232 7th ↓ Ramy Najjarine1320204NPL Victoria 3No matches played due to COVID-19 pandemic.2021148153719+1825 5th Max Caputo1220222215434313+3052 2nd ↑ Arion Sulemani1220233NPL Victoria 226113125456−2369thRaphael Borges Rodrigues72024VPL 12611875541+14415thMedin Memeti920252616646628+3854 3rd ↑ Arion Sulemani920262NPL Victoria00000000
See also Melbourne City FC Melbourne City FC (A-League Women)
Notes
References
External links Official website