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Manchester City FC has set up the world's first online football academy offering young talent the chance to follow in the footsteps of their sporting heroes.

The cityecademy is designed to motivate and develop young footballing talent worldwide. The deftest dribblers and most masterful maneuverers can work their way through a series of online videos covering core technical skills and training exercises, introduced by members of the club's first team and featuring academy players and MCFC coaches.

As trainees learn more skills and upload their own YouTube clips of training sessions, they earn points and progress from Apprentice, to Contender and, on achieving 500 points, to Pro, when they will be entered into a draw to earn the life of a professional footballer.

Man City has a history of nurturing young talent, with 31 first team players having been trained up through the youth academy, including winger Shaun Wright-Phillips (pictured - far left), more than any other club in the Premiership over the same period.

Chris Kay, head of marketing at MCFC, said: 'As a football club that's all about community and training the next generation of kids, the ecademy is a great proposition for us. We have a history of training international players, league players, first team players and we wanted to take that expertise beyond our door. We have this great academy at Platt Lane and we thought, why not allow more people to be involved in that?

'The ecademy is for anyone, anywhere in the world. Anyone with Internet access can use the resources; anyone with an iPhone can download the app. Whether you're an aspiring footballer aged 11-16, a father who wants to help his kid get into the school team or a coach of a junior side, this is a great resource. 

'A responsible club should give something back. And with our success in developing young players, the ecademy is within our DNA.'

Jim Cassell, director of Manchester City FC's Youth Academy, said: 'My ambition is for the cityecademy coaching videos to help nuture the next generation of footballers around the world so that we can continue to discover and produce international stars of tomorrow, just like we did with Shaun.'

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