Cole Palmer is widely tipped to follow Phil Foden as one of the next stars to come out of the Manchester City academy.
Pep Guardiola has described the 19-year-old midfielder as an “incredibly exceptional player”.
And on Saturday, Palmer added to the buzz around him when he scored a hat-trick for the City Under-23s side just hours after playing for the first-team in the Premier League.
Palmer came on for the final few minutes of City’s 2-0 win over Burnley at the Etihad Stadium as he replaced Bernardo Silva in stoppage time at around 4.45pm.
The England Under-21 star could have been forgiven for putting his feet up, but he then rushed over to City’s Academy Stadium, which is located right next to the Etihad, and scored a hat-trick for the Under-23s in their 5-0 win over Leicester at 8pm.
Palmer scored his first senior goal for City in their 6-1 Carabao Cup victory over Wycombe Wanderers last month and his remarkable day shows why there is so much excitement around him.
“It was a good day,” said Palmer. “I saw that the EDS were playing at half seven and the first team were at three.
“So, I thought if I don’t get 30 minutes or something I asked if I could come over and play and he said yeah, I could come over and play.
“I’m doing what I love - I can’t complain. It’s hard to keep focused and keep the energy all day but apart from that I enjoyed it. I just try to entertain and score goals for the fans and do what I do.
“Everyone wants to play games so when I saw the opportunity to play I thought I might as well come and play and that’s what I did."
