Morning Leeds-in for 23 May: Another Academy player signs professional deal at Leeds

Two days after Theo Hudson signed a professional contract, another Academy player does the same. 18 year-old Niall Huggins signed his first professional deal yesterday.

Per the club’s official website:

Leeds United are delighted to announce Niall Huggins has agreed a one year professional contract with the club.

The forward’s deal will begin on July 1st 2019 and will run until the end of the 2019/20 campaign.

Huggins has been in fine form for the Under-18s over the last campaign, netting an impressive 12 goals in 29 matches for Mark Jackson’s side.

His performances haven’t gone unnoticed by Wales, with Huggins linking up with their Under-21s for a training camp in the last international break.

Huggins had this to say in regards to his new deal:

I’ve been at the club for 12 years, so I’m really pleased to get my first professional contract.

The last year has been really good for me, the season before I was injured for eight months, so to comeback and make a big impact for the team has been massive.

Getting this deal is a really big achievement for me and it is a really proud moment to get it done.

I want to push on next season and try to make an impact for the Under-23s, you’ve got players like Jack Clarke and Jamie Shackleton pushing on into the first team and it is good to see and gives me a lot to look forward to next season.

It’s good to see the pipeline from the Academy to the first team is still strong, with players going up from the U18s to the U23s and then on to becoming stars. If Leeds are to compete without parachute payments or petrodollars, then the academy will have to be the source of a significant amount of new players.

On to the links.

Leeds United Links

Leeds are still going to Australia for a preseason tour. [Yorkshire Evening Post]

England and English Football Links

The winding-up petition against Bolton Wanderers by HMRC has been suspended as the club has officially gone into administration. [BBC.com]

Have a spare £25 million sitting around? Then Bolton could reportedly be yours. [Lion of Vienna Suite]

American Christian Pulisic was officially unveiled at Chelsea. [BBC.com]

World Football Links

A look at the final weekend in Serie A, with plenty left to be decided. [Chiesa di Totti]

Vincenzo Montella will miss Fiorentina’s final match of the season as he’s been given a two-match ban. Lucky him. [Viola Nation]

Simone Inzaghi the latest to be linked to the Milan manager job. [AC Milan Offside]

Antonio Conte is reportedly all set to be the new manager of Inter Milan. [Football-Italia.net]

FIFA will not expand the World Cup 2020 to 48 teams, electing to keep it at 32 teams. [BBC.com]