The Boy from Manchester City's Academy

Manchester City's Carrington training ground was not very large.

Besides the First Team and reserve team, two youth academy age groups also trained there, all consisting of players over sixteen.

Only on Saturdays and Sundays did players between the ages of nine and fifteen come to the training ground for two football classes a week. The rest of the time, these children stayed at home or attended school.

This was a requirement of The FA.

Their standard for the scope of youth recruitment was a one-hour journey. In other words, clubs could only scout within that range.

For players over twelve—in other words, those between thirteen and sixteen—the range could be extended to an hour and a half. This placed considerable restrictions on Premier League clubs' youth recruitment.

To a certain extent, it even held back youth development in England.

Wealthy clubs were willing to invest, but they could not expand on a large scale or bring in youth talent from beyond the designated range.

Meanwhile, players in many regions were unwilling to invest in youth development, and The FA invested very little in this area either. As a result, the cultivation of talent in England was extremely poor.

Of course, the strict limits on travel distance were also intended to let children stay with their parents.

The intention was good, but it had an unfavorable impact on the development of football.

Over the years, as German football experienced an explosion of talent, especially with the emergence of young players such as Toni Kroos and Thomas Müller, German youth development had finally reaped rich rewards after ten years of investment and reform.

As England's archrival, England had also learned its lesson and was preparing to launch a sweeping reform of youth development. It was currently conducting research and inspections across