| Clubname: | Reading Under-21s |
| Fullname: | Reading Football Club (Under-23s & Academy) |
| Nickname: | The Royals |
| Ground: | Madejski Stadium, Bearwood Park |
| Chairman: | Sir John Madejski |
| Manager: | Michael Gilkes (Academy) Noel Hunt, (Under-23s) Mikele Leigertwood (Under-18s) |
| League: | |
| Season: | 2021–22 |
| Position: | U23s – 14th U18s – 11th |
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The Reading Academy refers to the development teams of Reading Football Club. The club takes part in the Professional Development League system, with the Under-23 competing in the Premier League 2 – Division 2, and the Under-18 competing in the U18 Premier League – South Division.
Under the old youth training scheme, the club produced a number of first team players including Ady Williams, Scott Taylor and future England international Neil Webb. Since the Academy opened in 1999, 75 graduates have gone on to play first team football for Reading including Gylfi Sigurðsson, who was later sold for a club record transfer fee.
Reading were granted Academy status by the Football Association in February 1999. The first Academy manager was John Stephenson who oversaw the club's youth development until October 2000 when he left to join Preston North End. He was succeeded by former Reading goalkeeper, and the then goalkeeping coach, Nick Hammond.[1] After his appointment as Reading's first Director of football in September 2003, Hammond combined all three roles until the appointment of Exeter City boss Eamonn Dolan as the new Academy manager in October 2004.[2] The club originally trained in rented facilities at Sonning Lane and Bradfield College but moved to their own training ground at Hogwood Park in Arborfield in 2004.[3] [4] A two-year Academy partnership with Boreham Wood was announced in July 2012[5] with the club also aiming to have a first-team composed of 50% Academy players.[6] The introduction in 2012 of the four-tier academy system under the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) forced the club to search for a new training ground in order to meet the criteria for Category One status.[7] With this in mind, the club agreed in principle to buy land at Bearwood Lakes Golf Club for a new training facility at a cost of between £10 million and £20 million in May 2013.[8] [9] In July 2013, the club confirmed they had achieved Category One status.[10]
The Reading reserves competed in the Capital League between 1995 and 1998 before joining The Football Combination which they played in from 1998 until 2006, excluding the 1999–2000 season.[11] With the senior side's promotion to the Premier League in 2006, the reserve team was also promoted to the Premier Reserve League for the 2006–07 season. Under future first-team manager Brian McDermott, the reserves finished top of the Southern section and beat Bolton reserves 2–0 to win the overall title in their first season.[12] They finished second the following year but were relegated as the first team dropped into the Championship.[13] The reserves rejoined the Football Combination following their relegation and remained there until 2010 when they withdrew in order to arrange their own fixtures against a higher level of opposition.[14]
With the club's application for Category One status under the EPPP, the under-21 and Academy (under-18) teams competed in the new Professional Development League 1 for the 2012–13 season.[15] The teams were successful under the new format with the under-18s finishing as runners-up to Fulham in the inaugural competition,[16] and the under-21s winning the first U21 Premier League Cup the following year.[17]
In July 2022, Reading confirmed that their Academy had lost its Category One status as a result of downsizing during the 2020–21 and 2021–22 seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, and as a result the club the dropped out of the Premier League 2 Division 2 to the Professional Development League. The club also confirmed their intentions to return to a Category One Academy.[18]
The under-23s play their home matches at Hogwood Park, the club's training ground, with four games each season being played at the Madejski Stadium. Three outfield players and one goalkeeper over the age of 23 are allowed to be selected for each fixture,[19] with scholars from the Academy squad also eligible to play.
Each year, following the completion of their full-time education, the club signs a number of schoolboys, from both within the academy and from other clubs, on scholarship agreements.[20] The scholarships last two years after which the player signs professionally or is released by the club. In instances where a player is particularly valued, the club may opt to sign them on professional terms at an earlier age.[21] The scholars make up the bulk of the Academy team which competes in the under-18 league, though younger players are also eligible. As well as the league, the Academy also enters a team into the FA Youth Cup.
The under-18s play their home matches at Hogwood Park, the club's training ground, with a selection of games each season being played at the Madejski Stadium. Three outfield players and one goalkeeper over the age of 18 are allowed to be selected for each fixture, with scholars from the Academy squad also eligible to play.
Prior to the establishment of the Academy, Reading produced several players for the first-team who went on to have successful careers. Neil Webb became Reading's youngest ever goalscorer aged 17 years and 31 days and made a total of 81 appearances for the club, later going on to win 26 England caps.[22] Ady Williams made nearly 400 appearances in three spells between 1988 and 2004 and was capped 13 times for Wales[23] whilst Stuart Lovell made 227 league appearances, scored 58 times and played twice for the Australia national team.[24] Others to have come through the ranks include Johnny Brooks, Jerry Williams, Steve Hetzke, Scott Taylor and Maurice Evans, who made over 400 league appearances for Reading and later managed the first-team between 1977 and 1984.[25] [26]
Since the Academy opened in 1999, 87 graduates have gone on to play for the first team. Players who have gone on to play for their country at full international level are marked in bold whilst those still at the club are marked in italics.[27] [28] [29]
Simon Cox Shane Long
Curtis Osano Alex Pearce
Jem Karacan
Gylfi Sigurðsson Scott Davies
Michael Hector
Ryan Edwards Sean Long Niall Keown
Andrija Novakovich Josh Barrett Liam Kelly Axel Óskar Andrésson
Michael Olise
Jeriel Dorsett
Nahum Melvin-Lambert
Dejan Tetek
Mamadi Camará Kian Leavy
Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan Jahmari Clarke
Kelvin Abrefa
Basil Tuma Coniah Boyce-Clarke
Jack Senga| Player | Position | Age of debut | Reading | International | U21/U23 International | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading Career | Manager | Debut date | Apps | Goals | Country | Apps | Goals | Country | Apps | Goals | ||||
| Alex Haddow | Midfielder | 1999–2001 | Tommy Burns | 4 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Darius Henderson | Forward | 1999–2004 | Alan Pardew | 83 | 15 | – | – | |||||||
| Nathan Tyson | Midfielder | 1999–2004 | Alan Pardew | 38 | 1 | – | – | |||||||
| Jamie Ashdown | Goalkeeper | 1998–2004 | Alan Pardew | 16 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Darren Campbell | Midfielder | 2003–2005 | Alan Pardew | 1 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Peter Castle | Defender | 2003–2006 | Alan Pardew | 1 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Jamie Young | Goalkeeper | 2003–2006 | Steve Coppell | 1 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Simon Cox | Forward | 2005–2008; 2014–2016 | Steve Coppell | 69 | 9 | 30 | 4 | – | ||||||
| Shane Long | Forward | 2005–2011 2022–2023 | Steve Coppell | 235 | 56 | 88 | 17 | 1 | 0 | |||||
| Curtis Osano | Midfielder | 2005–2008 | Steve Coppell | 2 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Alex Pearce | Defender | 2006–2015 | Steve Coppell | 240 | 15 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0 | |||||
| James Henry | Midfielder | 2006–2010 | Steve Coppell | 18 | 4 | – | – | |||||||
| Julian Kelly | Defender | 2008–2011 | Steve Coppell | 13 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Jem Karacan | Midfielder | 2007–2015 | Steve Coppell | 175 | 12 | – | 3 | 0 | ||||||
| Gylfi Sigurðsson | Midfielder | 2008–2010 | Steve Coppell | 51 | 22 | 78 | 25 | 14 | 6 | |||||
| Simon Church | Forward | 2007–2013 | Steve Coppell | 122 | 24 | 38 | 3 | 15 | 8 | |||||
| Scott Davies | Midfielder | 2006–2011 | Brendan Rodgers | 5 | 0 | – | 3 | 0 | ||||||
| Hal Robson-Kanu | Midfielder | 2007–2016 | Brendan Rodgers | 228 | 30 | 46 | 5 | 4 | 2 | |||||
| Nicholas Bignall | Forward | 2008–2013 | Brendan Rodgers | 4 | 2 | – | – | |||||||
| Ben Hamer | Goalkeeper | 2006–2011 | Brendan Rodgers | 5 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Jordan Obita | Defender | 2010–2020 | Brian McDermott | 191 | 7 | – | – | |||||||
| Jake Taylor | Midfielder | 2009–2016 | Brian McDermott | 36 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 0 | |||||
| Alex McCarthy | Goalkeeper | 2007–2014 | Brian McDermott | 75 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | |||||
| Lawson D'Ath | Midfielder | 2010–2014 | Brian McDermott | 1 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Dominic Samuel | Forward | 2012–2017 | Brian McDermott | 15 | 2 | – | – | |||||||
| Michael Hector | Defender | 2009–2015, 2015-16 | Nigel Adkins | 93 | 5 | 39 | 0 | – | ||||||
| Ryan Edwards | Midfielder | 2012–2015 | Nigel Adkins | 10 | 0 | – | 18 | 0 | ||||||
| Craig Tanner | Forward | 2013–2017 | Nigel Adkins | 5 | 1 | – | – | |||||||
| Jake Cooper | Defender | 2014–2017 | Nigel Adkins | 56 | 4 | – | – | |||||||
| Jack Stacey | Midfielder | 2013–2017 | Nigel Adkins | 6 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Aaron Kuhl | Midfielder | 2013–2017 | Nigel Adkins | 8 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Aaron Tshibola | Midfielder | 2013–2016 | Nigel Adkins | 17 | 0 | 15 | 1 | – | ||||||
| Sean Long | Defender | 2013–2017 | Nigel Adkins | 1 | 0 | – | 11 | 1 | ||||||
| Mikkel Andersen | Goalkeeper | 2007–2015 | Nigel Adkins | 5 | 0 | – | 14 | 0 | ||||||
| Niall Keown | Defender | 2013–2017 | Steve Clarke | 3 | 0 | – | 2 | 0 | ||||||
| Andrija Novakovich | Forward | 2015–2019 | Steve Clarke | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | – | ||||||
| Tariqe Fosu | Midfielder | 2014–2017 | Steve Clarke | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | - | ||||||
| Josh Barrett | Midfielder | 2015–2020 | Brian McDermott | 13 | 2 | – | 3 | 0 | ||||||
| Robert Dickie | Defender | 2014–2018 | Brian McDermott | 1 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Tennai Watson | Defender | 2015–2021 | Jaap Stam | 9 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Liam Kelly | Midfielder | 2013–2019 | Jaap Stam | 94 | 9 | – | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| Omar Richards | Defender | 2016–2021 | Jaap Stam | 104 | 3 | – | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| Axel Óskar Andrésson | Defender | 2016–2019 | Jaap Stam | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 18 | 3 | |||||
| Andy Rinomhota | Midfielder | 2015–2022 | Jaap Stam | 139 | 4 | 1 | 0 | – | ||||||
| Sam Smith | Forward | 2015–2021 2023– | Jaap Stam | 50 | 18 | – | – | |||||||
| Danny Loader | Forward | 2017–2020 | Jaap Stam | 35 | 2 | – | 9 | 1 | ||||||
| Tom Holmes | Defender | 2017–2024 2024 | Jaap Stam | 133 | 1 | – | – | |||||||
| Tom McIntyre | Defender | 2016–2024 | Scott Marshall | 117 | 7 | – | 3 | 0 | ||||||
| Gabriel Osho | Defender | 2016–2020 | Scott Marshall | 10 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Ryan East | Midfielder | 2016–2021 | José Gomes | 1 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Michael Olise | Midfielder | 2019–2021 | José Gomes | 73 | 7 | – | 7 | 1 | ||||||
| Teddy Howe | Defender | 2017–2020 | José Gomes | 6 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Akin Odimayo | Defender | 2019–2020 | José Gomes | 1 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Andre Burley | Defender | 2019–2020 | Mark Bowen | 3 | 0 | 21 | 1 | – | ||||||
| Ramarni Medford-Smith | Defender | 2019–2020 | Mark Bowen | 1 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Jeriel Dorsett | Defender | 2019– | Mark Bowen | 31 | 1 | 5 | 0 | – | ||||||
| Ben House | Defender | 2019–2020 | Mark Bowen | 1 | 0 | – | 2 | 0 | ||||||
| Luke Southwood | Goalkeeper | 2020–2023 | Eddie Niedzwiecki | 30 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | ||||||
| Ethan Bristow | Defender | 2020–2022 | Eddie Niedzwiecki | 11 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | ||||||
| Nahum Melvin-Lambert | Forward | 2020–2023 | Eddie Niedzwiecki | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | ||||||
| Dejan Tetek | Midfielder | 2020–2023 | Veljko Paunović | 21 | 0 | – | 5 | 0 | ||||||
| Lynford Sackey | Forward | 2020–2022 | Veljko Paunović | 2 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Nelson Abbey | Defender | 2020–2024 | Veljko Paunović | 31 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Oliver Pendlebury | Midfielder | 2020–2021 | Veljko Paunović | 1 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Conor Lawless | Midfielder | 2020–2021 | Veljko Paunović | 1 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Mamadi Camará | Midfielder | 2020– | Veljko Paunović | 26 | 1 | 5 | 0 | – | ||||||
| Claudio Osorio | Midfielder | 2021–2023 | Veljko Paunović | 2 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Kian Leavy | Midfielder | 2021–2023 | Veljko Paunović | 2 | 0 | – | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan | Forward | 2021– | Veljko Paunović | 61 | 15 | – | – | |||||||
| Michael Stickland | Defender | 2021– | Veljko Paunović | 4 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Jahmari Clarke | Forward | 2021–2024 | Veljko Paunović | 14 | 2 | – | – | |||||||
| Tyrell Ashcroft | Defender | 2021–2022 | Marko Mitrović | 4 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Louie Holzman | Defender | 2021– | Veljko Paunović | 2 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Kelvin Abrefa | Defender | 2021– | Veljko Paunović | 30 | 2 | – | – | |||||||
| Basil Tuma | Forward | 2022– | Paul Ince | 5 | 0 | – | 3 | 0 | ||||||
| Coniah Boyce-Clarke | Forward | 2019– | Noel Hunt | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | ||||||
| Jack Senga | Forward | 2021– | Noel Hunt | 2 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Caylan Vickers | Forward | 2023–2024 | Rubén Sellés | 22 | 3 | – | – | |||||||
| Taylan Harris | Midfielder | 2023–2024 | Rubén Sellés | 1 | 1 | – | – | |||||||
| Tom Norcott | Goalkeeper | 2023– | Rubén Sellés | 1 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Andre Garcia | Defender | 2024– | Rubén Sellés | 4 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Emmanuel Osho | Defender | 2024– | Rubén Sellés | 2 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Abraham Kanu | Defender | 2024– | Rubén Sellés | 2 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Adrian Akande | Forward | 2024– | Rubén Sellés | 2 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Shay Spencer | Midfielder | 2024– | Rubén Sellés | 1 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Ashqar Ahmed | Defender | 2024– | Rubén Sellés | 1 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Tyler Sackey | Midfielder | 2024– | Rubén Sellés | 1 | 0 | – | – | |||||||
| Totals | 87 Players | 2,945 | 291 | 21 Players | 386 | 59 | 24 Players | 153 | 22 | |||||
A number of players attached to the Academy as schoolboys and scholars, as well as those who signed professionally but never made a first team appearance, have gone on play league football elsewhere. Those that have gone on to play for their country at full international level are marked in bold and those who made their league debut whilst away on loan are marked in Italics.[27] [30] [31] [32] [33]
Jökull Andrésson
Abdulai Bell-Baggie
Doug Bergqvist[36] Kelvin Bossman Oliver Bozanic
Henrik Breimyr[37] Donervon Daniels[41]
Kevin Danso Samúel Friðjónsson Jonny Hayes
Noor Husin
Ji Dong-Won
Clovis Kamdjo Ibrahim Kargbo Jr. Carl McHugh Nam Tae-Hee Joel Rollinson Conor Shaughnessy
Louie Soares[51] Pierce Sweeney
Terence Vancooten
Bogdan VaštšukSeveral Academy graduates hold club records. Peter Castle became the club's youngest ever player when he came on as a substitute against Watford on 30 April 2003 for his first and only Reading appearance, aged 16 years and 49 days, whilst Gylfi Sigurðsson holds the record for the highest transfer fee received when he moved to Hoffenheim in August 2010.[55] In May 2013 Alex McCarthy became the first Reading graduate to be selected in the England squad since the Academy era began in 1999.[56] Additionally, three graduates have been named Player of the Season with Gylfi Sigurðsson, Alex Pearce and Jordan Obita winning in 2009–10, 2011–12 and 2013–14 respectively.[57]