Trialists get the chance to show Rodgers their potential
FA YOUTH CUP WINNER AND FULL INTERNATIONAL GIVEN SECOND HALF RUN-OUTS AGAINST NOTTS COUNTY
LEICESTER City handed run-outs to two trialists on Saturday as they lost to Notts County in their first preseason friendly of the summer.
Paul Appiah and Deniche Hill both enjoyed run-outs as part of the youthful second half side fielded by Brendan Rodgers, a period during which Aden Baldwin scored the winner for the National League visitors.
Both Appiah and Hill have been training with the club over the first couple of weeks of pre-season, but this was their first opportunity to show the club how they performed in matches.
The duo are being looked at as potential recruits for City’s development squad as they look to bolster their ranks ahead of the new Premier League 2 season.
This term, the age limit of the competition is coming down from under-23 to under-21.
Centre-back Appiah is the more established of the two.
The 19-year-old has been in the academy system for some time, spending a few years with Chelsea before joining Aston Villa in 2019.
There, he helped them win the FA Youth Cup in 2021, captaining one of their games during their run to the trophy, and scoring in the quarterfinal.
Last season, he played seven times for their Under-23s, missing a chunk of the season through injury.
Despite that, he was not offered a new deal with Villa and was released this summer.
If Appiah was to get a deal at City, he would not be the first released Villa player to do so in the current regime.
Lewis Brunt made the same journey last summer, and went on to make his Premier League debut with the club away at Spurs. City are well connected with the youth set-up at Villa.
Ben Petty, the head coach of the club’s development squad, used to work there before moving across to the East Midlands.
Hill, meanwhile, has come from a slightly more unusual route.
Already a full international for the Caribbean island of Bermuda, the left-back has emerged from the academy at Brooke House College in Market Harborough.
An international boarding school, Brooke House College has had a football academy since 2008 and it is overseen by their technical director Micky Adams, the ex-City manager.
Hill is one of a number of young players who have moved from Bermuda
to attend the college. They have had a few players go on to make it professionally.
Jesse Sekidika is a Nigerian winger who played for Galatasaray in Champions League qualifying last season, while Tanzania international Kelvin John is on the books of Belgian side Genk.
Hill hopes to be the next and has already made good progress internationally.
After representing Bermuda in the Concacaf Under-20 Championship qualifying last autumn, he got his senior debut for his country in June, playing in a goalless draw with Haiti.
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