Coran Madden – the “best young talent” in Northern Ireland – has turned down the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool in favour of a trial at Newcastle.
The 14-year-old from Cliftonville has been labelled a ‘golden child of the country’ by the club’s Head of Youth Marc Smyth, who believes he has a very bright future ahead of him.
Manchester United are another option who are still on the table and will be competing with Newcastle for the youngster, but it’s certainly a good sign that we’re attracting such top talents already.
According to Smyth, Madden is a very versatile player, playing as a 10 or anywhere across the front line, and has ‘all the attributes you want off the pitch’ as well.
There were plenty of opportunities for the teenager – every Premier League side showed interest, but Madden was forced to narrow his potential destination down to two clubs.
Here’s what Smyth had to say on Madden:
“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 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.”
As the father of a 14 year old lad myself I have an uneasy feeling about such levels of publicity.
They are getting similar levels of coverage as first team players coming in.
We need to let these boys – and they are boys!! They are of an age where they have just made their options for GCSEs for god sake!!.
We need to allow them to develop, mature both physically and mentally & enjoy their football – and they need to earn it.
Sharpy17(Quote)
fair point.
Smitty Robinson(Quote)