IT HAS BEEN confirmed that 19-year-old Irish midfielder Jack Byrne signed a new contract with Man City earlier today.

The player is considered to be one of the Eastlands club’s top prospects and has been tipped as a potential future Ireland international.

Despite the impressive strides made by the player in recent times, he is far from a household name as of yet, nevertheless, here is what we do know of him…

• Byrne is a midfielder who has been at City since the age of 15, previously playing with renowned Irish club St Kevin’s Boys.
• He is highly rated at City and was even sent to train with the first-team squad at the end of last season.
• Byrne has played for Ireland at underage level and was recently named in the U21 squad to face England.
• He was also part of the City side that lifted the International Premier League Cup back in May.
• Like fellow youth team player, goalkeeper Ian Lawlor, he is from Dublin, hailing from Ballybough.
• Byrne has  a penchant for scoring the odd spectacular goal (see below).

• The Manchester Evening News report that today was a particularly poignant one for Byrne, as his contract signing occurred on the eight-year anniversary of his father’s death. Speaking to the same paper in June, Byrne said of his decision to sign for City amid interest from a number of high-profile clubs: “There was a real family feel with City, they always treated me really well. Plus, there was a real buzz about the place after the takeover.”
• Despite his progress, Byrne remains some way away from the first team currently, and has been linked with a loan move next season.
• He has been compared to former Man United star Paul Scholes and earned praise from ECD coach Patrick Vieira, who recently said: “What I like about Jack is his personality. He doesn’t get scared at all, he just plays his football and some of his passing in Moscow was excellent. He can be different to Scholes, who was more about getting in the box — he scores more goals than Jack, so I think Jack will be a different type of player. But they are both great on the ball… Physically he is not impressive at all, but his technique and first touch are excellent and he always likes to play forwards. Now he needs to keep playing, keep working hard and like all the lads at this club he needs to take the opportunity that presents itself. If he keeps working hard, the chance will come for him to challenge himself at a different level.”
• He was the subject of a recent documentary highlighting his rise in youth football…

• Despite his success, he is under no illusions as to the amount of work that needs to be done to succeed in senior football, commenting following City’s European success last month: “If you’re going to play for our first team, there’s a high demand on winning trophies, so it’s great to instil it into the youth. We definitely have to be winning trophies if we want to push into the first team.”
• He is a fairly active tweeter and can be found at @Jackb_8.

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