‘Best young talent in the country’ chooses Newcastle United over Liverpool and Manchester City | OneFootball

An interesting and uplifting tale here for Newcastle United fans, regarding a player labelled ‘the best young talent in the country’, that young player being Coran Madden.

Cliftonville’s academy has provided a pathway for countless young players to progress to playing senior football in England.

Now their Head of Youth has been chatting about the club’s star young prospect who has also been labelled ‘Golden Child’ over in Northern Ireland.

Marc Smyth, Cliftonville’s Head of Youth, has revealed that Coran Madden has chosen to go on trial with Manchester United and Newcastle United. The 14 year old turning down the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City in favour of the two Uniteds.

The Head of Youth explaining that new rules mean that young players can only choose two clubs each year to visit, train with, have trials at.

Marc Smyth speaking to Belfast Live about Coran Madden and explaining why Newcastle United and Manchester United were selected ahead of the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City:

“I think those clubs sold their vision to Coran and his family. All we can do is guide them in terms of what we think would be good for the boy and the family.

“And also what would help the kid off the field. His dad is a Liverpool fan, so it definitely wasn’t any loyalties to either club.

“Manchester United and Newcastle United are massive clubs, and spoke well with the family and wanted to bring them over.

“There were clubs from all over the place interested in Coran. With the new rules you feel a bit embarrassed saying, ‘sorry, we thank you for your interest but we can’t take you up on your offer’.

“But he still has these wonderful opportunities. Coran will go over to each club and see if he likes it or not, and he will obviously have a trial and things will progress from there.

“He has a long way to go, but it is great for him to get this recognition.”

“Coran is just 14 and he is an exceptional talent. He can play 10, left wing, right wing – basically anywhere across the front.

“He is the best young talent in the country. He recently won player of the tournament at this summer’s SuperCupNI, playing for County Antrim.

“Coran has been with us since he was six years old and he is just a wonderful talent. And now there is a host of clubs after him.

“Every Premier League club has asked about him, but with the new rules a young player can only choose two clubs each year. So Coran has chosen Manchester United and Newcastle United.

“We also had interest from Manchester City, Liverpool, Everton and other clubs like Southampton and Leicester City. He is such a gifted player.

“He is also the most humble kid you’ll ever meet. He is nice, hard-working, all the attributes you want off the pitch.

“On the pitch he is very direct, can go both ways, two great feet, and the most important things is he is unbelievably intelligent.

“He reads the game so well, and he is reaping the rewards of being with our academy since a young age….we have this kid here (Coran Madden) who is the Golden Child in his age group in the country.

“We went down to Under 6 when I took the job. We started a skills school, and now we have the FonaCab League which I started for teams Under 6 to play here.

“Now there are 200 teams in that. And Coran was one of the first kids to come through that.

“He came from being a six-year-old, to the Golden Child in the country. Listen, he still has a long way to go, but he is such a talent and he should do well.”

This tale alone isn’t proof of massive change at Newcastle United BUT it is yet another indication of the time and resources that are being put into recruiting the best young talent into all levels of the club, from the first team squad all the way down the age groups.