Melbourne City FC Youth

Melbourne City Football Club Youth is the youth system of Melbourne City Football Club based in Cranbourne East, Melbourne. The youth teams consist of an under-23s team that competes in senior levels of soccer in Victoria; currently the Victorian Premier League 1, and a development squad of an under-21s team that competes in the under-23 levels of soccer in Victoria.

Melbourne City Youth

Full name	Melbourne City Football Club Youth
Nickname(s)	City Youth
Founded	2011; 14 years ago (2011)
Ground	City Football Academy
Owner	City Football Group
Chairman	Khaldoon Al Mubarak
Youth Head Coach	Alessandro Diamanti
League	Victoria Premier League 1 A-League Youth
2024	5th of 14
Website	www.melbournecityfc.com.au
Home colours Away colours

Melbourne City Academy was introduced in 2016 and are composed of four academy teams, ranking from under-14s to under-17s teams that compete in the youth National Premier Leagues Victoria leagues.^[1]

History

Early years (2011–2014)

The team was founded in 2011 as Melbourne Heart Youth, the season after their senior side Melbourne City (then known as Melbourne Heart FC), made their A-League debut. The inaugural manager was John Aloisi before he accepted the role as head manager at the end of the 2011–12 season. From 2012 onwards, Joe Palatsides had been the manager. The youth team's first match was played in the 2011–12 against local rivals Melbourne Victory in a 2–0 win at John Cain Memorial Park.^[2]

Entry into National Premier Leagues (2014–2018)

On 7 November 2014, it was confirmed that Melbourne City would compete in the NPL Victoria 1 competition from the 2015 season onwards. The team consists mainly of Melbourne City's youth team, which also competes in the A-League Youth.^[3] On top of this, Melbourne City opted to send a U-20 team to enter the concurrently-run development-level U-20 NPL league competition.^[4]

The team finished on top of the table of the 2014–15 National Youth League, tied with Brisbane Roar FC Youth on both points and goal difference but were awarded the title having scored a greater number of goals.^[5]

After several seasons competing in the NPL, Melbourne City announced they were expanding their participation to also enter teams into the U-18 and U-15 competitions. In February 2018, youth teams joined the National Premier Leagues for the under-20s and under-18s sides,^[6] with the U-18 side being managed by Davey van 't Schip (the brother of former manager John van 't Schip).

Players

Youth

These players can also play with the senior squad and compete in the A-League Youth and the VPL 1.

As of 12 February 2025^[7]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  AUS James Nieuwenhuizen 2 DF  AUS Peter Antoniou 3 DF  AUS Ryan Kalms 4 MF  AUS Marcus Humbert 5 DF  AUS Harrison Shillington 6 MF  AUS Xavier Stella 7 FW  AUS Benjamin Mazzeo 8 MF  AUS Zane Schreiber 9 FW  AUS Medin Memeti 10 MF  AUS Lawrence Wong 11 FW  AUS Arion Sulemani 12 DF  AUS Lewis Marinucci 13 DF  AUS Jayden Necovski

No. Pos. Nation Player 14 MF  AUS Angus Mackintosh 15 MF  AUS Ben Dunbar 17 DF  AUS Sebastien Giannella 18 MF  AUS James Georgiou 19 FW  AUS Mikey Ghossaini 20 GK  AUS Lachlan Charles 22 DF  AUS Mikael Evagorou-Alao 23 MF  AUS Kavian Rahmani 24 MF  AUS Emin Durakovic 25 FW  AUS John Kellis 27 FW  AUS Roland Ballah 29 FW  AUS Max Caputo

Under-21s

As of 11 February 2025^[8]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 16 DF  IDN Mathew Baker 21 MF  AUS Beckham Baker 26 MF  AUS Julian Recchia 30 GK  AUS Jonty Benfield 31 MF  AUS Joel Arena 32 FW  AUS Luke Becvinovski 33 DF  AUS Roland Ballah 32 DF  AUS Mikael Evagorou-Alao 33 FW  AUS Nicholas Vardakas 34 DF  AUS Dion Toro 35 DF  AUS Nikola Djurovic 36 DF  AUS Yaser Payendeh 37 FW  AUS Jesse Langa

No. Pos. Nation Player 38 DF  AUS Jacob Greco 39 DF  AUS Charlie Downes 41 MF  AUS Theodore Limberis 42 MF  AUS Isiah Boston 43 MF  AUS Danial Kamsani 44 FW  AUS Dimitros Vlanes 45 FW  AUS Daniel Matina 46 DF  AUS Joshua McKenzie 47 FW  AUS Aaron Cartwright 48 MF  AUS Joseph Pezzano 51 GK  AUS Antonie Van Riet 60 FW  AUS Akeem Gerald 63 MF  AUS Oliver O’Carroll

Current staff

Head Coaches:

Alessandro Diamanti	Youth Head Coach
Lewis Potter	U21 Head Coach
Daniel Topping	U17 Head Coach
Leroy Almenara	U16 Head Coach
Luke Johnson	U15 Head Coach
Frankie Barilla	U14 Head Coach

Staff:

Stuart McDonald	Youth Assistant Coach
Daniel Topping	U21 Assistant Coach
Daniel Cappellaro	U17–U16 Assistant Coach
Josh Sasic	U15–U14 Assistant Coach

Honours

Youth (Under-23s)

• A-League Youth Premiership
  • Winners (2): 2016–17, 2017–18
  • Runners-up (1): 2018–19

• A-League Youth Championship
  • Winners (2): 2014–15, 2017
  • Runners-up (1): 2018

• Victoria Premier League 2
  • Runners-up (1): 2022

Under-21s

• Victoria Premier League 1 U-23 Premiership
  • Winners (1): 2023

• Victoria Premier League 1 U-23 Championship
  • Winners (5): 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2023
  • Runners-up (2): 2018, 2022

• Victoria Premier League 2 U-23 Premiership
  • Runners-up (1): 2022

• Victoria Premier League 2 U-23 Championship
  • Winners (1): 2022

Stadium

The team hosts its home matches at CB Smith Reserve and Casey Fields. In previous years, home games have also been played at Epping Stadium, John Cain Memorial Park, John Ilhan Memorial Reserve and La Trobe University.

Team records

A-League Youth

Further information: Y-League

Season	A-League Youth									Grand Final	Top scorer
	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Position		Player(s)	Goals
League format
2011–12	18	8	2	8	35	37	−2	26	5th	–	Zac Walker	7
2012–13	18	8	1	9	32	34	−2	25	6th	–	Joshua Groenewald	8
2013–14	18	8	4	6	40	30	+10	28	5th	–	Marcus Schroen	5
2014–15	18	10	5	3	40	27	+13	35	1st	–	Wade Dekker	9
Conference format
2015–16	8	3	1	4	18	23	−5	10	3rd	Did not qualify	Wade Dekker Chris Cristaldo	4
2016–17	8	5	1	2	18	12	+6	16	1st	Champions	Yusuf Ahmed	5

Football Victoria

Further information: Football Victoria and National Premier Leagues Victoria

Season	Football Victoria											Top scorer
	T	League	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Position	Player(s)	Goals
2015	3	NPL Victoria 2 West	28	13	5	10	56	45	+11	44	5th	Wade Dekker	10
2016			28	14	4	10	70	45	+25	46	3rd	Chris Cristaldo	10
2017		NPL Victoria 2 East	28	11	8	9	68	49	+19	41	3rd	Austin Wong	9
2018			28	10	4	14	60	59	+1	34	6th	Moudi Najjar	14
2019			28	9	5	14	60	58	+2	32	7th ↓	Ramy Najjarine	13
2020	4	NPL Victoria 3	No matches played due to COVID-19 pandemic.
2021			14	8	1	5	37	19	+18	25	5th[a]	Max Caputo	12
2022			22	15	4	3	43	13	+30	52	2nd ↑	Arion Sulemani	12
2023	3	NPL Victoria 2	26	11	3	12	54	56	−2	36	9th	Raphael Borges Rodrigues	7
2024		VPL 1	26	11	8	7	55	41	+14	41	5th	Medin Memeti	9
2025			15	10	5	0	43	14	+29	35	1st[b]	Arion Sulemani	9

See also

• Melbourne City FC
• Melbourne City FC (A-League Women)

Notes

1. Season suspended after 14 matches due to COVID-19 pandemic.
2. As of 30 May 2025.