Manchester United have set out the next stage of Kai Rooney\u2019s development after the 16-year-old was among 15 players awarded first-year scholar status.<\/p>\n
Kai joined the club\u2019s academy in 2020 at the age of 11 and has progressed through the age groups. He made his U-18s debut last summer at 15 and played at Old Trafford for the first time in an FA Youth Cup match in January, with his father watching from the stands.<\/p>\n
The first-year scholar year is the opening half of a two-season scholarship designed to bridge academy football and the senior game. Kai will turn 17 a few months into the program\u2019s second year, the earliest point at which he could be offered a first professional contract if the club deem him ready. The end of the two-year scholarship is a decisive moment in an academy career; not all scholars move up to the U-21s on professional terms and some are released.<\/p>\n
Kai is not alone in this intake. Jacey Carrick, Michael Carrick\u2019s son, is also 16 and arrives as a defensive midfielder in the same group. Last season\u2019s first-year scholars will now move into the second year; together the two groups will form the club\u2019s U-18s for the forthcoming season under Darren Fletcher.<\/p>\n
Position<\/p>\n
Players<\/p>\n
Goalkeeper<\/p>\n
Jake Ford<\/p>\n
Defenders<\/p>\n
Harley Emsden-James, Idris Fabiyi, Gazimagamed Ibragimov, Connor Laurie, Samuel O’Brien<\/p>\n
Midfielders<\/p>\n
Jaume Camacho Sidos, Jacey Carrick, Harlem McLaughlin, Jodie Nganga, Pharell Silvester, Emmanuel Ziro<\/p>\n
Forwards<\/p>\n
Edson Dejonge-Seiros, Camron Mpofu, Kai Rooney<\/p>\n
Wayne Rooney watches his sons regularly. Klay, born 2013, is also in the club academy, while youngest Cass, born 2018, plays in Everton\u2019s junior ranks. Kit, born 2016, no longer plays soccer and is apparently more into darts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just let him play,\u201d Rooney said of Kai in particular to the BBC in 2025. \u201cHe has great coaches at Manchester United, so I take a stand off approach. I speak to him, but for me it\u2019s all about his mentality and his mindset, to make sure he keeps enjoying it\u2014that\u2019s the main thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Stick to Football in 2024 Rooney added: “[He has] my physique, but he\u2019ll be taller than me and he\u2019s a goalscorer, he\u2019s in the box, he sniffs chances out and that\u2019s his game.” A recent image shared on Instagram showed Kai already close to his father\u2019s height, with Rooney listed at 5’9″.<\/p>\n
Father and son professional pairings are common in the sport and some footballing families span three or four generations. Several former Manchester United stars had sons who became professionals; Peter Schmeichel, Steve Bruce and Paul Ince each had sons, Kasper, Alex and Thomas respectively, who did not play for the Red Devils. Darren Fletcher\u2019s twin sons, Jack and Tyler, made five first-team appearances between them last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kai Rooney starts a two-year Manchester United scholarship, moving closer to pro eligibility. 2026\/27<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1348],"tags":[1446,1081],"class_list":["post-16707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-manchester-united-news","tag-academy","tag-adaptation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}