Mark Ellis confirmed today that Manchester City’s Academy will play Tahj Bell and his Richmond International Academic Soccer Academy (RIASA) teammates next Monday April 23rd at the Manchester City Reserve training ground, Platt Lane in Fallowfield. According to Ellis the facility will provide a fantastic experience for the RIASA squad, as it is one of the best in the country.
The Manchester City Academy director, Scott Sellers, said their team would be predominately made up of players from Africa who are training at the club. These have been scouted from various regions and attend training sessions as part of their development. Manchester City is a global business and has a network that spans the world. They have the resources to bring in the best youth players to train in their home academy to be evaluated. Our RIASA players have been given the opportunity to see how they match up”.
The match was due to be played earlier in the year but due to a backlog of fixtures the game has had to wait until next week.
Ellis went onto say, “This will be a good test for the RIASA squad, I’m confident we will be able to show the Manchester City coaching staff we have one or two players that would not be out of place in their academy. It’s a wonderful opportunity and experience for the RIASA players to be invited to showcase their talent.”
Ellis concluded, “We have a lot of games coming up, we not only have this showcase game, but we have the U19 League and the RIASA/Eccleshill United games as well as the two RIASA teams league fixtures to get through in the next three weeks. Hopefully, everyone can stay focused and fit and bring a good end to a season that started back in August. It’s been a good year so far, we have seen growth and development of some players who could move on to bigger and better things next year in addition to getting two RIASA players signed to pro contracts in Europe”.
