Melbourne City prospect Lawrence Wong made history after debuting in the Isuzu UTE A-League debut on Tuesday night.
The 17-year-old academy graduate became the first City player to have come through the club’s entire Player Development Pathway before debuting in the A-Leagues.
Jayden Necovski, Peter Antoniou and Lachie Charles also transitioned from City Football Schools through the club’s Academy teams to signing a first-team contract but Wong is the first to appear in the Isuzu UTE A-League thanks to his starting bow against Western United at AAMI Park.
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“He has a little bit of x-factor in terms of his creativity,” City head coach Aurelio Vidmar told Paramount+ after the 2-0 win over Western. “We needed something there in midfield.
“He hasn’t played a hell of a lot. Played most of his NPL games last year. He has a different quality but he is still very young.
“In time, we think he is going to be very good. He has silky skills, can hit a ball, good delivery, can take people on as you can see.”
Described as one of City’s brightest academy talents, the creative midfielder signed his first professional contract in the off-season.
The teenager first joined City in 2019.
“Since joining our Academy Lawrence has shown he is a very talented player, particularly in the past 18 months where his physical development has accelerated significantly,” said director of football Michael Petrillo when Wong’s pro deal was announced.
“He’s made his mark at every age group in our Academy and having watched him in training with our senior squad so far this pre-season, he does not look out of place.
“If he continues to work hard and take his opportunities, I believe he will be a player that City fans will enjoy watching for years to come.”
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It is also part of City’s strategy as they begin to benefit from their academy.
“It’s super exciting. From our end, these boys like Memeti, Antoniou, Charles, Wong, they were our first cycle of boys who actually started with us from 12 years of age and gone through a full academy cycle,” City’s senior academy manager Simon Zappia told aleagues.com.au after Round 4 of the season.
“The quality of those players is obviously fantastic but there’s more to come behind that. Each year in our academy, we’re refining it, getting better, putting more resource into it to allow players to be at a better level.
“From an academy sense, it’s the first time we’ve ever had a full cycle come through and a lot of people forget that sometimes. In the early days when the National Youth League was around, you had the NYL team and that was it.
“2020 was the first season we were able to have teams from Under-14s all the way through here at Melbourne City. Obviously two years of that was COVID anyway, where we didn’t play much football.
“We’re really only seeing the full cycle – it will be more the 2009, 2010, 2011 boys that you will see come through over the next few years that have actually had the full five-six year period in the academy without hiccups.
“I think it’s really exciting for Australian football.”
