Melbourne City FC Youth

Melbourne City Youth
Full nameMelbourne City Football Club Youth
NicknameCity Youth
Founded2011 (2011)
GroundCity Football Academy
OwnerCity Football Group
ChairmanKhaldoon Al Mubarak
Youth Head CoachStuart McDonald
LeagueVictoria Premier League 1
A-League Youth
20253rd of 14 (promoted)
Websitewww.melbournecityfc.com.au

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 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 16 February 2026[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
— GK  AUS Jonty Benfield
— GK  AUS Lachlan Charles
— GK  AUS Sam Robson
— DF  AUS Peter Antoniou
— DF  IDN Mathew Baker
— DF  AUS Ryan Kalms
— DF  AUS Besian Kutleshi
— DF  AUS Jayden Necovski
— DF  AUS Yaser Payendeh
— MF  AUS Beckham Baker
— MF  AUS Nikola Djurovic
— MF  AUS Angus Mackintosh
No. Pos. Nation Player
— MF  AUS Oliver O’Carroll
— MF  AUS Christian Polyzoudis
— MF  AUS Julian Recchia
— MF  AUS Lawrence Wong
— FW  AUS Roland Ballah
— FW  AUS Luke Becvinovski
— FW  AUS Isiah Boston
— FW  NZL Aaron Cartwright
— FW  AUS Akeem Gerald
— FW  AUS Daniel Matina
— FW  AUS Tobias Servin

Under-21s

As of 16 February 2026[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
— GK  AUS Sevdim Banusevski
— DF  AUS Dominic Aravanis
— DF  AUS Fraser Brown
— DF  AUS Jacob Greco
— DF  AUS Rian Korcari
— DF  AUS Joshua McKenzie
— DF  AUS Nicholas Vardakas
— MF  AUS Dean Antonakakis
— MF  AUS Jensen Bowering
No. Pos. Nation Player
— MF  AUS Luka Demuth
— MF  AUS Kai Satilmis
— MF  AUS Christian Souvlis
— MF  AUS Denis Tarja
— FW  AUS Andrew Pothitos
— FW  AUS Haris Rizmani
— FW  AUS Thomas Nasso
— FW  AUS Dimitros Vlanes

Current staff

Head Coaches:

Stuart McDonald Youth Head Coach
Lewis Potter U21 Head Coach
Leroy Almenara U18 Head Coach
Frankie Barilla U16 Head Coach
Andrej Maxsimov U15 Head Coach
Christian Chiang Moroni U14 Head Coach
Josh Sasic U13 Head Coach

Staff:

James Jeggo Youth Assistant Coach
Leroy Almenara U21 Assistant Coach
Daniel Cappellaro U18-U15 Assistant Coach
Marc Aloisio U15–U13 Assistant Coach

Honours

Youth (Under-23s)
Under-21s

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 26 16 6 4 66 28 +38 54 3rd ↑ Arion Sulemani 9
2026 2 NPL Victoria 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Season suspended after 14 matches due to COVID-19 pandemic.

References

  1. ^ "About Us". Melbourne City. Retrieved 19 January 2025.
  2. ^ "Heart too good for Victory". A-League Youth. Football Federation Australia. 5 December 2017.
  3. ^ "NEWS: Melbourne City FC NYL accepted into Victorian NPL". Melbourne City FC. 7 November 2014. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  4. ^ "City commences 2016 National Premier Leagues (NPL) Season". Melbourne City FC. 25 February 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  5. ^ "Melbourne City FC win Foxtel NYL title". Football Federation Australia. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  6. ^ "City set sights on NPL with two new teams". melbournecityfc.com.au. 14 February 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  7. ^ "Youth Team – VPL1 Seniors". Melbourne City FC. Retrieved 16 February 2026.
  8. ^ "Development Squad – VPL1 U23". Melbourne City FC. Retrieved 16 February 2026.
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