Best friends Noah and Jasper are reaching for the stars after being signed by champions City

Best friends Noah Greenwood and Jasper Cooney show off their new City tracksuits after signing for the Premier League champions

A pair of best friends have had their special talents recognised after beating off huge competition to sign for Premier League champions Manchester City.

Noah Greenwood is a goalkeeper from Chadderton and Jasper Cooney, who can play in almost any position on the football pitch, is from Mossley.

Both have signed for City’s Under-8s team and will be with the club now for the next two years.

Both boys are best friends and have grown from grassroots level football to both sign for the European giants.

Noah and Jasper played from the age of five years old at Shawside Juniors, and then later changed to RKix in Rochdale.

Both boys were scouted around the same time at the age of five and have attended numerous Cat1/Cat2 football academies - including Liverpool, Manchester United, Burnley, Blackburn and Bolton - but settled on Manchester City as their chosen club after being offered a pre contract earlier this year.

They both signed signing and committed to the treble-winning club last Thursday. 

Between them, Noah’s parents Tim Greenwood and Samantha Greenwood and Jasper's parents Emma Blyden and Andrew Cooney, said: "It’s so special that they can enjoy this journey together as best friends.

"We were told by City that 20,000 boys get looked in the run-up to signing at under 8s, going into the under 9s academy set-up, and only 22 boys make it to the main team.

"That is amazing."

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