Ranking Leeds United's five best academy prospects at Elland Road | OneFootball

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Leeds United are known to have produced many brilliant prospects from their youth set-up over the years, and that is a trend expected to continue in the years to come. The club find themselves in the Championship after being relegated from the Premier League in the 2022/23 season, following a poor campaign in which the team only accumulated 31 points from 38 games, finishing 19th in the table.

Names to have come through the youth ranks at the club include James Milner, Kalvin Phillips and Jonathan Woodgate. The latter went on to play for Real Madrid during his career while Phillips and Milner have both gone on to win both the Premier League and Champions League, not bad for a couple of boys from Yorkshire.

Jamie Shackleton is the most recent example of a player to come through the ranks to earn a consistent place in the first-team squad, with the midfielder getting his chance to shine in the Championship with seven league appearances so far in the 2023/24 season.

Being in the second tier of English football, the club can afford more opportunities to their young players with so many fixtures being played over the course of a season. Promotion back to the Premier League could perhaps stunt the development of these youngsters.

Leeds United Under-21 Results - 2023/24 Premier League 2

We take a look at some of the current youth players with the West Yorkshire club that are hoping to break into the first-team in the future, and rank their chances at being successful.

5 Cody Drameh

A player destined to go on to become a regular with the first-team squad is the young full-back, who spent last season out on loan at Luton Town. Despite being only 21-years-old, Drameh was handed his Premier League debut in 2021 in a few substitute appearances to reward his impressive displays for the youth side.

Even after being used sparingly in the top flight, the youngster was then used as an Under-21 player in the 2022/23 season before his aforementioned loan at Kenilworth Road. He is still not seen as a viable first-team option, meaning the defender has been sent out to Brimingham on loan. Drameh finishes so low on the list due to the fact he has played some first-team minutes, although the majority of these minutes have been away from Elland Road.

4 Charlie Allen

Allen was signed as a 16 year-old from Linfield, and has gone on to feature in the Premier League 2 and the Under-18s Premier League since 2020. He made 23 appearances across all competitions in the 2022/23 season, now fully focused on Premier League 2. The attacking midfielder has represented his country at Under-17 level, making 4 appearances for Northern Ireland and scoring one goal.

He has started the 2023/24 campaign in very good fashion with a goal and an assist from three games in Premier League 2. Allen has played the full 90 for all three of those games, making him a vital asset to the Leeds side he is part of. The Under-21 side find themselves sitting in 13th place in the division having won three games from six, losing three in the process. The youngster looks to have a future with the club in a more senior role in future should his progress continue.

3 Kris Moore

Moore is an important part of the Under-21 set-up this season as he has started all six of the aforementioned games in Premier League 2, making him a likely candidate to make the step-up to first-team football as there is clearly a lot of faith in him within the club. At only 19, the centre-back could follow in the footsteps of Pascal Struijk in becoming a big part of the Elland Road team. The Dutch defender has made many Premier League appearances after being shown the same faith as Moore while in the youth side.

A goal and an assist is not a bad return at all from six matches, and that is exactly the record of the Englishman, who made the step up from Under-18 level at the age of 17 in 2021. There are not a huge amount of central defender options within the Leeds squad meaning there could well be chances in cup competitions within the next 12 months or so for Moore.

2 Darko Gyabi

Gyabi has represented England all the way up from Under-15 to Under-20 level. The 19-year-old is a 6"5' midfielder that was signed from the Manchester City academy in 2022 to be part of the Leeds Under-21 set-up. There are such high expectations of the youngster that he appeared for the first-team in both domestic cup competitions while also making a Premier League appearance before the club were relegated.

Ahead of the Under-20s World Cup, Gyabi was called up for the squad, and even scored against Uruguay in a group stage win. The young lions were unfortunately eliminated by Italy, in a game that Gyabi featured in. Two goals and three assists in Premier League 2 last season prove that the Englishman can be a threat going forward from the engine room, and this has even earned him a regular place on the bench for the first-team in the Championship at the start of the season.

1 Sean McGurk

The Liverpool-born winger is currently the jewel in the crown of the Leeds youth team, having impressed in the Under-21 league so far this season. He has started five of the six games in the league for the 2023/24 campaign, scoring three goals and getting two assists in that time. McGurk is expected to go on to do big things for the first-team when he gains more experience, and at the age of 20, he will more than likely get some game time in cup competitions.

He has already matched the goal tally he managed in the entirety of the past two seasons in a lot less matches, showing significant growth as he looks to work a way into the plans of the senior team. It can be difficult to tell how players will handle the step-up in quality, but McGurk stands as good a chance as any of the youth players at the moment.