Manchester City fans haven’t had a great deal to be positive about recently, but the academy continues to produce some seriously talented young players.
Earlier this week, 16-year-old Ryan McAidoo scored a hat-trick against Feyenoord in the UEFA Youth League.
The youngster scored his three goals in just 19 minutes after coming on as a substitute.
His first goal was particularly brilliant, as he combined with Justin Oboavwoduo. Some Man City fans even felt McAidoo and Oboavwoduo resembled David Silva and Sergio Aguero.
Yesterday, another Manchester City academy talent hit a hat-trick, including one strike from the halfway line.
Divine Mukasa scores outrageous halfway line goal as he hits Man City hat-trick
The Manchester City U18s took on Newcastle United in PL2 yesterday, and won convincingly.
It was 7-1 in the end, and Divine Mukasa scored a hat-trick, just days after McAidoo did the same of the U19s.
McAidoo actually featured in this game as well, and scored to make it 3-0, after goals from Reigan Heskey and Finlay Gorman. Dante Headley made it 4-0 just before half-time.
But the day was all about Mukasa, who hit a second-half hat-trick.
Newcastle did pull a goal back to make it 4-1, but then, Mukasa audaciously scored from the halfway line from the kick-off to put City immediately 5-1 up.
He then produced a smart finish off his chest for his second, and he then added his third on 83 minutes, as City branded his performance in midfield ‘immense’.
Divine Mukasa reacts after hat-trick vs Newcastle
This was quite the performance Mukasa, who joined the club in 2023 from the West Ham United academy.
The starlet, described by City as a ‘skilful, creative midfielder’, and ‘a player that thrives in tight spaces and well capable of scoring and assisting goals’ spoke after the 7-1 win, and admitted he actually often looks for goalkeepers being off their line.
He said: “I think I look for it every game and I finally seen the ‘keeper on the edge of his box so I went for it,” began Mukasa.
“I think it was a pretty good performance, our whole team played well and we made it an easy game. Three goals came with it in the end but yeah it was a good game.”
Mukasa also had a positive word for a couple of his teammates, McAidoo and Heskey
“My team-mates especially Reigan [Heskey] and Ryan [McAidoo] started the season a little bit slower, obviously Ryan joining from Chelsea but now he’s really finding his feet and contributing to goals every week so they’ve been a really big help,” he added.
There are a number of really exciting young players on the books at the moment, and hopefully, Pep Guardiola will have a close eye on the academy moving forward.
