The English Football League’s annual Youth Development Week is a perfect opportunity to celebrate the success stories of players throughout the leagues up and down the country and their own individual journeys in the EFL.
This year’s EFL Youth Development Week takes place between 7th and 11th November and we have taken a look at the success garnered from within our own ranks, with focus on the last 12 months.
Derby County’s Academy, which holds Category One status and has done so since 2014, has produced several players that have progressed through the ranks to play first-team football, either for the club or elsewhere, since Academy Director Darren Wassall took up his role in early 2009.
Across the 2021/22 season, a total of 11 Academy graduates made their first team debuts in EFL competitions; Eiran Cashin, Festy Ebosele, Liam Thompson, Bartosz Cybulski, Dylan Williams, Osazee Aghatise, Darren Robinson, Carlos Richards, Malcolm Ebiowei, Luke Plange and Marko Borkovic.
Cashin, Thompson, Cybulski, Aghatise, Robinson and Richards all remain with the Rams at various levels with Republic of Ireland Under-21 international centre-back Cashin cementing himself as a first-team regular since his first appearance in the Championship against Blackpool in December 2021. Midfielder Thompson, meanwhile, is a regular member of the first team set-up.
Forwards Ebiowei and Plange both earned moves to Premier League side Crystal Palace and continue to develop at the highest level. Wideman Ebosele is now with Italian side Udinese, while left-back Williams was signed by Premier League Chelsea last January.
Winger Borkovic moved across the pond in the summer to link up with one of America’s top universities, Ohio State, at the end of his two-year scholarship in the Academy.
It’s not an anomaly either seeing so many talented players being brought through the ranks in the Rams’ Academy.
The current first team under Paul Warne has strong links back to the youth set-up. Vice-captain Max Bird (22), along with the midfield trio of Jason Knight (21), Louie Sibley (21), Thompson (20) and defender Cashin (21) were all developed in the ranks at Moor Farm and are now regulars in Sky Bet League One. In addition, striker Jack Stretton (21) is gaining first-team experience on loan at League Two side Carlisle United.
In recent years we’ve seen numerous players work their way through the ranks at Derby and go on to ply their trade elsewhere in the EFL and beyond.
Midfield pair Will Hughes (Crystal Palace) and Jeff Hendrick (Newcastle United, on loan at Reading) are two stand-out players to have come through the Academy and gone on to play at the highest level in English football. Kaide Gordon (Liverpool) and Liam Delap (Manchester City) left for the top flight whilst still schoolboys and are also tipped to enjoy great success in their careers, too.
Mason Bennett (Millwall), Jayden Bogle and Max Lowe (Sheffield United), Louie Watson (Luton Town), Jordan Brown (Leyton Orient), Morgan Whittaker (Swansea City on loan at Plymouth Argyle), Luke Thomas (Barnsley), Emil Riis Jakobsen (Preston North End), Charles Vernam (Lincoln City), Offrande Zanzala (Newport County), Callum Guy (Carlisle United), Jonathan Mitchell (Doncaster Rovers), Calum Macdonald (Stockport County), Kellan Gordon (Mansfield Town), Luke Hendrie (Bradford City), Lewis Walker (Gillingham), Kwame Thomas (Sutton United) and Farren Rawson (Morecambe) have all cemented themselves as top EFL players whereas Ebosele (Udinese) and Lee Buchanan (Werder Bremen) to name two have both gone on to play at the top level in Italy and Germany respectively.
Jayden Mitchell-Lawson (Ayr United), Timi Max Elsnik (Olimpija Ljubljana) and Henrich Ravas (Widzew Lodz), Ivan Calero (Cartagena), Cameron Cresswell (Start) and Archie Brown (Lausanne-Sport) are also playing at senior level in other countries.
Another noteable name is defender Mark O'Brien, who turned Derby, Motherwell (loan), Luton Town, Southport (loan) and Newport County before having to retire in 2020 on medical grounds owing to heart surgery.
These just scratch the surface, too. There are many others, playing in leagues right across the football pyramid in England and further afield, who were raised in the EFL with Derby County.
Derby County has also been a good breeding ground for promising young players from Premier League clubs to cut their teeth in the EFL before returning to their parent clubs and going to enjoy successful careers.
Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori could feature for England at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and enjoyed impressive loan spells from Chelsea in the 2018/19 campaign season, while former Liverpool loanee Harry Wilson could do the same with Wales.
Other players with top-level experience that spent time on loan at Derby developing their game since 2009 include Jack Butland, Jesse Lingard, Michael Keane, Patrick Bamford and Jake Livermore.
Derby County is proud to have played its part in the development of so many youngsters playing the beautiful game - and is committed to continuing that trend for many, many years to come.
