The way Manchester City has dominated the English football is now proving to be a big help for their affiliate clubs in different parts of the world. They’re all focused on replicating the English club’s performance in their own corresponding leagues. These clubs are also benefiting from the Manchester City’s expertise, both off as well as on the pitch, and there’s no club that exemplifies this better than the New York City FC.
New York City FC is owned by City Football Group, the same people who own Manchester City as their flagship club in UK, Melbourne City FC in Australia, Girona in the Spanish top league and similar clubs in Uruguay and Japan.
Have improved considerably since 2015
Despite the fact that the American club played their first season in 2015, they have already achieved one third-place and two second-place finishes in the MLS’ Eastern Conference so far. Now the American soccer enthusiasts and punters are backing New York City FC to strengthen their position even more in the league. In fact, even if they go by the MLS odds for various betting markets, the club is well on course to accomplish that goal.
As per Claudio Reyna, the Director at New York City FC, the initial success enjoyed by the club was mostly because of help provided at all levels by the Manchester City, the head of the City family. Talking to Reuters in an interview, he said, “We are a family of clubs at City Football Group and we all have direct links back to Manchester. It is great to be able to have more insight, tap into the network that Man City has. From our coaches being able to go over and learn from their coaches in their academy, or have their academy director coaches come over here and support us to exchange out ideas.”
He further informed that the scouting information is shared at all the levels and that the entire City Football Group follows a shared philosophy regarding how football should be played and how things should be done off and on the field. Claudio also spoke about Pep Guardiola and how is doing an amazing job at Manchester City, inspiring other clubs to play soccer like that.
Not any ordinary feeder club
It’s a well-known fact that big clubs in the Premier League own feeder clubs in Europe that help their young players to get valuable on-field experience, before staking claim in the parent’s first team. Manchester United has one in Belgium called the Royal Antwerp and Chelsea sends its young players to Netherlands’ Vitesse Arnhem.
However, the relationship between Manchester City and New York City isn’t just like any other Premier League club, looking at it just as an opportunity to nurture the next generation. The same can be said about all the clubs in the City Football Group.
Focusing on present and the future
As MLS 2019 season is already into its sixth month, NYCFC hold the Eastern Conference’s best points-per-game record so far. They have the best goal difference stats in the entire league, despite playing 3 games lesser than the majority of other teams in the division.
NYCFC invest considerably into both the academy as well as the first team. Claudio stressed on the fact that many other MLS expansion teams have taken considerably longer to fully establish themselves in the league and have an academy running for many years now. The New York team is now in the process of signing 3 more players from the academy to the first team, and more in the future.