City Academy duo Kean Bryan and Ashley Smith-Brown played significant roles for England u17s in the inaugural St Georges Park Tournament.
England had mixed results at the competition which marked the opening of the new complex that the senior team will now use as a base.
Bryan was on the scoresheet in the team’s impressive 4-1 win over Turkey on 31 August, weighing in with the third – a perfectly executed volley from range.
John Peacock’s side lost their opening match to Italy 3-2, as well as their final game with eventual-winners Portugal 1-0 but both players did their reputations no harm across the three matches.
Smith-Brown played 195 minutes of the games, while Bryan featured for 220 minutes as both gained valuable international experience in the competition.
Senior manager Roy Hodgson paid the players a visit and spoke to them about the challenges they will face over the vital next couple of years in their developments, an incredible experience for the players.
“Meeting with Roy Hodgson was nice! Inspiring,” Bryan tweeted from his Twitter account after the meeting.
Hodgson gave an inspirational address to the youngsters and spoke about the experience shortly after.
“I hope they are going to be coming here a lot with the U17s and hopefully the Under-21s and the senior team,” Hodgson told theFA.com.
“I made it clear that they are in a very privileged position and that shouldn’t believe they have actually arrived yet.”
They have taken the first steps and all I can do is wish them well in their careers and hope they can profit from the great facilities on offer here.
...Roy Hodgson...
Smith-Brown and Bryan returned to Manchester this week and will be back in contention for the under-18s when they are back in action against Fulham on 22 September.
