Manchester United Youth Academy

The Manchester United Academy was established in 1998, following the reorganisation of youth football in England, but has roots stretching all the way back to the 1930s with the establishment of the Manchester United Junior Athletic Club (MUJAC). and has been responsible for producing some of Manchester United's greatest ever players, including the club's top five all-time appearance makers, Ryan Giggs,Bobby Charlton, Bill Foulkes, Paul Scholesand Gary Neville, and the new wave of home-grown talents known as Fergie's Fledglings. The current academy is based at the club'sAon Training Complex, an 85-acre (340,000 m²) site in the Manchester suburb ofCarrington.

The Manchester United youth team is statistically the most successful in English football, with nine players in the English football Hall of Fame (Duncan Edwards, Sir Bobby Charlton, George Best, Nobby Stiles, Mark Hughes, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, David Beckham and Johnny Giles). Manchester United also have the best FA Youth Cup record, winning on 10 occasions out of 14 final appearances.

The academy comprises age-group teams ranging from Under-9s up to the flagship Under-18s, who currently compete in Group C of the Premier Academy League and in the FA Youth Cup. The Under-16s and Under-18s typically play their academy league games at 11am on Saturday mornings at Carrington, while Youth Cup games are generally played at either Altrincham's Moss Lane ground (where the under-21s play their home games) or the club's 76,000-capacity Old Traffordhome, in order to cater for the greater number of supporters these fixtures attract.

Paul McGuinness is the head coach of the under-18s academy side. He was in charge of the side that won the 2011 FA Youth Cup after beating Sheffield United 6–3 on aggregate.

In 2007, Manchester United Under-18s were the inaugural winners of the Champions Youth Cup, intended to be a Club World Championship for youth sides, beatingJuventus 1–0 in the final in Malaysia.

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