COLCHESTER United have handed contracts to six of their talented academy youngsters.
Elkanah Akor, Kai Martin, Alfie Newby, Burak Sabah, Al-Amin Kosoko and Rashaad Drysdale will be with the U's under-18s for the next two seasons, having progressed to this level through the youth set-up at the League Two club.
The youngsters will all be training at Colchester's Florence Park training ground in Tiptree and will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Noah Chilvers and Junior Tchamadeu, who have shone for the first team over recent seasons having started out with the U's youth set-up.
U's academy manager James McFarlane told www.cu-fc.com: "First things first, well done to the lads for getting these contracts.
"Any young player that gets to this stage has had to work extremely hard and make numerous sacrifices along the way.
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"They have all shown the right attitude, application and talent to make this big step and I'm sure that everyone will join me in wishing them the best of luck.
"It is the biggest step in their fledging football careers, and things don't get any easier for them from here.
"They will be training full-time, the work gets tougher and they will have to continue making those sacrifices and more to get to that next stage of being a professional footballer."
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