Soccer is undoubtedly one of the globally admired game of sports that is why it enjoys a maximum number of academies who train thousands of promising players and big sides from around the globe then select players who could help them sustain their reigning position in regional as well world soccer. English sides as well have a long list of affiliated academies they pick players from along with many others who work as their associate partners for feeding young players and Saint-Etienne youth academy is one such hub of great talent that has provided players like Kurt Zouma, Joshua Guilavogui, and Faouzi Ghoulam in recent past. To take the advantage of pool of its finest soccer talent, Manchester City has decided to add this academy into its list of associated partners to provide young and promising talent. According to close resources, City’s parent company: City Football Group, is not tiring praising the supporting atmosphere Saint-Etienne provides to its players hence done a brilliant job by flooding league clubs with lots of options to pick from. The child brain of Ligue 1 side, Saint-Etienne has now become a brand name among all the aspiring clubs and according to latest reports, City would enjoy first right to select the players out of its academy while on the other hand Christophe Galtier side would also enjoy the benefit of having City bosses backing them.
The President of Les Verts’ oversight committee, Bernard Caiazzo, said talking about their possible deal with league giant, “In the last 18 months, which other club has produced so many first-choice players playing at a big club? It’s been four or five times now that Dominique has met them, it seems very serious. They are people who want to work in the long-term.
“Unlike Monaco or Lyon, we don’t pay for youngsters who are 13, 14, 15 years old. Once, we had an agreement with a kid, but Monaco came in and paid 200,000 euros and he went there. In the future, we can imagine that City would pay that money.”
Manchester City has ever enjoyed a surplus of world class players and with this possible deal; they could further add more promising players into their army making them even stronger on paper. On the other side, experts are also taking this step as nothing but media exaggerated one since every big side is associated with several academies producing quality players since ages hence this would have no impact practically.