Manchester City held their annual academy awards on Thursday night, attended by outgoing Sporting Director Txiki Begiristain and his replacement Hugo Viana.
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Hugo Viana attended Manchester City's academy awards night alongside Txiki Begiristain.
(Image: Manchester City)
Five Manchester City youngsters have been recognised for their performances this season, winning awards in front of new Sporting Director Hugo Viana.
The City academy have enjoyed a fine season, topping both under-21 and under-18 divisions and in national finals for the chance to be crowned overall champions, while also reaching the FA Youth Cup final where they lost to Aston Villa. The under-18s have chance for revenge with a return to Villa Park this weekend for the under-18 Premier League national final, while the under-21s are in the PL2 play-off final against Southampton.
At the annual awards night, Viana watched five players receive the top awards alongside his predecessor Txiki Begiristain and Academy Director Thomas Krucken. The top awards were won by defender Max Alleyne and forward Reigan Heskey who were named EDS and U18 Players of the Season respectively, voted for by coaching staff and the academy's Multi-Disciplinary Team.
Alleyne's win is all the more impressive given his defensive partner Jahmai Simpson-Pusey was recently named Premier League 2 Player of the Year, the first defender to win that divisional award, while forward Emilio Lawrence was on the shortlist for that accolade.
Midfielder Charlie Gray was named Player's Player of the Season among the EDS squad with goalscoring midfielder Divine Mukasa getting the Player's award for the under-18s. Prolific striker Matty Warhurst, scorer in the Youth Cup final, earned the Scholar of the Season award which focusses on all levels of the scholarship programme and educational achievement.
Warhurst was nominated as City's Scholar of the Season and was at Wembley this week for the Premier League Youth Development Awards.
Player of the Season Alleyne referenced Simpson-Pusey's PL2 award and said: “I’m really happy that I’ve won this. This season has been tough.
"I’m happy to be playing with this group of players who I’ve played with for the last three years. I’ve really enjoyed playing with Jahmai too - he deserves his PL2 Player of the Season Award.
"He’s a great player for us and a great captain. Hopefully we can go and win it on Thursday.”
That PL2 play-off final against Southampton is set to be played at the Academy Stadium on Thursday although the exact time is yet to be confirmed.
"The under-18s play their U18 National Final at Villa Park on Saturday afternoon, shortly before the first team are in FA Cup final action.
Krucken spoke to the Manchester Evening News and other media recently, revealing that his early meetings with Viana have been positive and the new Sporting Director is showing a similar interest in the academy to Begiristain, who speaks to Krucken daily.
They both attended the Youth Cup final at Aston Villa as Begiristain prepares to hand over the reigns full-time to Viana at the end of the season.
Former City captain Steph Houghton handed out the main awards on Thursday night, while ex-City academy graduate Nedum Onuoha was also at the ceremony.
Meanwhile, returning U18 captain Rhys Thomas will be unavailable for this weekend's U18 National final after receiving a call-up for the senior Wales squad who are holding a training camp this month.
Wales manager Craig Bellamy is using the end of the EFL and standard academy season to test a number of players who could then be involved in their June internationals. Squad captain Thomas has only recently returned from a long-term injury and came off the bench in the Youth Cup final.