Emre takes on full-time role at City

EMRE Tezgel will join Stoke City’s first team for preseason training this summer as he starts life as a full-time footballer.

Tezgel’s progress has been getting supporters excited. The 16-year-old, from Forsbrook, became Stoke’s youngest-ever player in January when he broke Peter Bullock’s longstanding record.

He has scored goals prolifically for club and country and has already had a taste of the under-23s.

In fact, he led the line in the Premier League 2 playoff final at Wolves late last month hours after sitting a GCSE exam at Painsley College, getting back to take another in the morning.

There have been reports in Turkey about interest from Fenerbahce but, for starters, clubs are not allowed to sign players under the age of 18 from other countries under Fifa rules.

That is lowered to 16 for countries in the EU but that doesn’t affect Stoke anymore.

Instead, Michael O’neill will invite the striker over for pre-season training with the seniors and he will start life as a full-time footballer at Clayton Wood.

Academy boss Gareth Owen said: “We’ve had the youngest player ever to play for Stoke City this year and that’s something no one expects to be taken away for a very long time.

“There has to be a steady stream of players. All the

23s have spent time training with the first team this season.

“Loans, training time and matches are all important and we’re grateful to the manager for opportunities.

“We can control environment but can’t always control opportunities. Then players have to meet us half way and show they can take the chance too.

“We’ve got a group coming up that people will have already seen flashes of in the 18s.

“Emre can finally join us on a full-time basis.

“Most of these boys have been with us from undernines and 10s. It’s a group we’ve been excited about and we’re excited about where we can get them.”