Leeds United have opened up another pathway to their Thorp Arch academy with the launch of a new development centre in Middlesbrough.
Talented Teesside youngsters will now have the opportunity to impress Leeds scouts with a view to earning a place at Leeds United's prolific academy, report our sister title Teesside Live.
While Middlesbrough FC have their own highly-rated academy at Rockliffe Park, the area falls in the catchment area for Leeds' scouting team.
Current Boro boss Jonathan Woodgate was of course a product of Leeds' academy, while for this new venture, the Whites have appointed a Teessider to run their new development centre at Trinity Catholic College, in Middlesbrough.
Chris Harper is a lifelong Middlesbrough fan and a former Boro scout who's enjoyed a degree of success coaching a Marton FC junior team.
It was through that club that the link with Leeds came about.
He said: “I was coaching a team at Marton and we were doing well. We got invited to a tournament at Leeds' Academy - I met the lads down there are they are really good footballing people.
“They said they didn't have a scout on Teesside and would I be interested? They got in touch later and said they wanted me on board. From there they asked me if I'd set up a development centre in Middlesbrough.”
That centre is now up and running and the first crop of players are being coached on Thursday nights on Trinity College's artificial pitch.
“It's a pathway to the Academy really,” explains Chris.
“We're starting with under-sevens, under-eights and under-nines and in the New Year we are going to push on and bring in Under-10s, Under-11s and Under-12s.
“At the moment it's one training session a week over five weeks. The plan is to have four weeks of coaching and training and on the fifth week we'll invite a grassroots team in from the local area for a game.
“The players will be assessed at the end of the five week period and either released back to their grassroots team or selected for further development and offered another block of sessions with us.
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