Lincoln City are pleased to announce the new intake of Scholars ahead of the 2019/20 season.
These young footballers will join the Imps as first year Scholars, with another joining us to complete the second year of his Scholarship.
As previously announced, these Scholars will be boarding at Lincoln Minster School, as part of the Imps’ newly launched partnership to enable the youngsters to further develop their education beyond the LFE programme alongside their football.
As part of their studies, four players are taking an A level, three in English and one in Maths, as well as one taking the Irish Leaving Certificate.
Jack Brown, who joins us in the middle of his A levels, will complete his studies in Art, Psychology and PE.
All of the other scholars will study for an Extended Project Qualification, which is the equivalent to half an A level.
This education provision will be in addition to the BTEC National Diploma taken by all the players as part of their LFE Scholarship programme.
The youngsters’ first pre-season with the Imps will include a training camp in the Netherlands, which has been organised and funded by the League Football Education (LFE).
Head of Football, Jez George said: “This is a really exciting group that we have assembled over a number of months from across the country and beyond.
“Our partnership with Lincoln Minster School has enabled us to be really ambitious in our recruitment and we look forward to seeing the progress and development of these players over the next two years.
“Without doubt, they will raise standards within the Scholarship programme and Academy.
"However far we extend our recruitment, we will always look within Lincolnshire first and Haydn Tear is an example of a local player who has graduated through Lincoln City’s Academy to earn a Scholarship.
“This is the best time in recent history to be a young player in Lincoln City’s Academy, but the bar is also set higher than ever before. Our process to select Scholars must reflect that.
“Realistically, we will always need to supplement those players who are good enough locally with others from further afield to deliver the Club’s ambition of developing a constant flow of home-grown players for our First Team.
“In next year’s Under 16’s, we have already offered Scholars to Hayden Cann and Billy Brooks, two local boys from within the Academy, and we are working hard across every age group to ensure that more schoolboy players can emulate their achievement in the future.”
The new first-year Scholars:
Sam Long (goalkeeper)
Ziyad Al-Oyouni (right-back)
Kacper Gruszczyński (left-back)
Jasper Tetlow (centre-back)
Sean Roughan (centre-back)
Haydn Tear (centre-midfielder)
Ben Sault (centre-midfielder)
Lewis Inglis (centre-midfielder)
Cameo Scott (right-midfielder)
Nathan Odokonyero (forward)
You will be able to hear interviews with the Lincoln City Academy’s new intake of scholars following their trip to the Netherlands.