Melbourne City Youth

Full name	Melbourne City Football Club Youth
Nickname	City Youth
Founded	2011; 15 years ago (2011)
Ground	City Football Academy
Owner	City Football Group
Chairman	Khaldoon Al Mubarak
Youth Head Coach	Stuart McDonald
League	Victoria Premier League 1 A-League Youth
2025	3rd of 14 (promoted)
Website	www.melbournecityfc.com.au
Home colours Away colours

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]

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]

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).

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

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

Head Coaches:

Staff:

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

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.

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

• Official website