Manchester United’s U15 team will this week finish their season as they do every year with a trip to the Marveld tournament in Holland which is on of the most prestigious under age tournaments in world football. The best U15 teams come from all over the world to compete in the three-day tournament held at the home of SV Grol.
The list of players to have played at the tournament reads as a who’s who of Dutch and International football with the likes of Robin Van Persie, Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Bastian Schweinsteiger all having graced the tournament since its inception 25 years ago while the past 10 years has seen the likes Jordi Alba, Thiago Alcantara, Stevan Jovetic and Romelu Lukaku all make their mark on the competition.
United’s own history of players to have played at the the tournament is also very impressive and in the past 10 years United have had the likes of Tom Cleverley, Jesse Lingard, Ravel Morrison, Michael and Will Keane, Tom Lawrence and most recently James Wilson all appearing before going on to feature for the first team, while the likes of Ben Pearson, Joe Rothwell and Sam Johnstone are all on the verge of the first team.
The 2014 edition is the 25th anniversary of the tournament and could be the best yet as United come up against top teams including Ajax and Real Madrid in their own group while the other group includes Bayer Leverkusen and Barcelona in what will be a very hotly contested tournament.
This year United will be hoping to continue the good progress they have made in the competition in the past couple of years after coming fourth last year and a best ever second place finish in 2012 with a team including current U18′s Dean Henderson, Cameron Borthwick Jackson and Demetri Mitchell with Henderson finishing the tournament as Best Goalkeeper.
This years squad includes a few players who have experience of playing at the tournament with James Thompson, Jake Barrett and Joseph Rankin-Costello all having appeared in last years tournament, while Faustin Makela (who recently made his U18 debut at the age of 14) is the most experienced player in the squad having appeared in the last two tournaments. Jake Kenyon who also appeared last year misses out through injury.
Other names to look out for from the squad are Angel Gomes an extremely gifted 13-year-old attacking midfielder who was the teams best player at the Hibernia Cup and Melle Meulensteen, the son of Rene Meulensteen, who is unsurprisingly a technically gifted player. There are also a few of our U13 players who will gain good experience from the trip with James Thompson (GK), James Garner (CB) and Dylan Levitt (AM) all in the squad along with two trialists Declan Evans and Jack Stewart.
United will obviously be hoping to build on their recent improvement in this tournament but with what will probably be the youngest squad in the tournament it will take a huge effort from the team but with the amount of quality they have in the squad they have every chance. Whether the team is successful or not there is every chance that some of these players could go on to emulate the likes of Wilson and go on to be the future of the club.
Squad:
Matthew Campbell, James Thompson, Jake Barrett, Max Dunne, James Garner, Joseph Rankin-Costello, Harry Spratt, Lewis Thompson, Venancio Monteiro, Aidan Barlow, Danny Butterworth, Angel Gomes, Dylan Levitt, Melle Meulensteen, George Tanner, Faustin Makela, Declan Evans, Jack Stewart
Marveld Tournament 2014 - DLA ICT Group Fixture
) and Aston Villa.