Swansea City Academy starlets recognised at awards evening

Swansea City academy celebrated the best and brightest of the club’s pathway system as it held its 2023-24 end-of-season awards at the Swansea.com Stadium on Monday evening.

The event recognised the player of the season for each age-group team, the pre-academy and Foundation Phase goal of the season, the Youth Development Phase (YDP) and Professional Development Phase (PDP) goal of the season, and the YDP and PDP save of the season.

The occasion gave youth players, their coaches and their families the opportunity to celebrate another successful campaign, which has seen the under-21s’ team and under-18s’ team reach the Nathaniel MG Cup final and Professional Development League Cup final respectively.

There have also been senior debuts for Sam Parker, Aimar Govea and Filip Lissah, while Azeem Abdulai made his first Championship appearance and several others have trained and travelled with the first-team squad.

Internationally, 14 academy players were called up for their respective nations at age-grade level, with Harlan Perry and Iestyn Jones set to represent Wales at the Under-17 European Championships this summer.

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And, with many success stories to choose from throughout the 2023-24 campaign, it was Mitchell Bates – fresh off the back of signing a new deal with the club – who was awarded the Under-21s’ Player of the Season award in recognition of his incredible rise from grassroots football to a regular starter and key figure.

Prolific goalscorer Thomas Woodward took home the Under-18s’ Player of the Season gong, capping off a remarkable season which has seen the forward register two hat-tricks among his 29 goals.

Perry, who made his Under-21s’ debut earlier this month, was named the Under-16s’ Player of the Season and Harvey Gray took the Under-15s’ award for his mammoth haul of 40 goals.

Alffi Hughes and Ifan Harding were awarded the Under-14s’ and Under-13s’ awards respectively, with both demonstrating an incredible work ethic and dedication to improve and develop.

For the younger age groups, Llewellyn Gregson (U12), Finley Thomas (U11), Lucas Lloyd (U10) and Ollie Evans (U9) were all recognised as the outstanding player in their respective age-groups with coaches praising the way they demonstrated the club’s values on and off the pitch.

Osian Nicholas took home the younger age groups’ goal of the season award for his clever skill and neat finish, while Bobo Evans earned him the same award for the elder sides.

And it was under-nines’ stopper Arlo Sturgess who took home the save of the season award for his superb one-handed save. Evan Watts' reaction stop against Peterborough United earned him the same accolade for the Professional Development Phase.