There’s no doubt that one thing Palace have been very good at over the years is producing exciting youth talent with Victor Moses, Wilfried Zaha and Nathaniel Clyne just a a few of the talents that have emerged on the big stage after being being nurtured through Palace’s academy.
Whether it’s because of the big catchment area or the great coaches, there’s something special about this big club from south London that keeps producing these quality players like a conveyor belt.
Fortunately not much has changed in respect of the talent in Palace’s youth teams recently and arguably this is one of the better periods in the clubs history in terms of having a hungry set of young lads wanting to make the difficult step up. Here’s just a few of the young starlets.
Hiram Boateng
In a competitive and dense field of talent this man stands out like arguably no other, he’s not be the tallest at 5’9″, but he doesn’t let this stop him from commanding the central midfield for the Palace U21’s and at only nineteen he oozes the necessary quality to make the step up.
On paper he seems to have no weakness as he can defend, attack, pass, shoot and dribble with frightening accuracy, just Google his Maradona-esque half way line goal if you don’t believe me.
Arguably Hiram is one of the closest out of the young stars to making an appearance for the first team, though in the mean time another loan spell could benefit him hugely and put him in good stead to play for the side in red and blue in the years to come, Hiram is most defiantly one to watch.
Sam Magri
Though Sam didn’t come directly from Palace’s youth system as he was signed from QPR last season, he’s fitted into Palace’s U21’s side seamlessly well.
He’s also a versatile player that can play in either the center half or right back role, though the later is his most natural position. One of his best attributes is his tackling, but he also likes to get forward much like our current right back Joel Ward.
Funnily enough just like Ward, Magri originally came from the Portsmouth youth system, so by dubbing him the next Joel Ward would be much more of an accurate assumption than most people would think. Nevertheless if the nineteen year old does continue to perform as he is, there’s every chance he can make a name for himself at Palace.
Ryan Inniss
Inniss unlike many other players his age already possess a huge physical presence which makes him a real force to be reckoned with especially in the air, because of the physicality he displays, many lower league teams have already deemed him good enough to represent them with Cheltenham, Yeovil and most recently Port Vale to name a few.
One thing that the London born nineteen year old has lacked, without it being his fault is stability as he hasn’t been able to record a whole season at one club, maybe the best option for him is to solidify his place in the U21’s side and look to push on from there with the assistance of his team mates that will of course also be looking to earn the same thing, a starting eleven spot in Crystal Palace’s first team. Inniss most certainly has a bright future ahead of him.
Next week we will continue with our look at the current crop in the Crystal Palace academy and see if any of them have what it takes to make it in either the Premier League or Football League with their abilities.
