Scottish Premiership
The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...
,
Aberdeen F.C.
Aberdeen Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in Aberdeen, Scotland. They compete in the Scottish Premiership and have never been relegated from the top division of the Scottish football league system since they were ...
also maintain further teams for younger age groups playing in competitions such as the
Scottish Challenge Cup
The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup,Scottish Youth Cup The Scottish Youth Cup (also known as the SFA Youth Cup) is an annual Scottish football competition run by the Scottish Football Association for under-18 teams,
within the club's
academy
An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...
.
Competitions
Reserves
In the early 1950s,
reserve team
In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...
s were incorporated into the third tier of the senior
Scottish Football League
The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...
, with Aberdeen 'A' taking part for six seasons of the arrangement.Scottish Football League C Division overview Scottish Football Historical Archive Aberdeen fielded a team for many years in various separate reserve competitions culminating in the Scottish Premier Reserve League, which was abandoned in 2009.
In July 2018, it was reported that reserve leagues would be reintroduced in lieu of the development leagues that had been in place since 2009 (below). The top tier of the new
SPFL Reserve League
The SPFL Reserve League is the reserve team league for football in Scotland. The league began in 2018, as the SPFL Development League was replaced by a reserve team (i.e not age-restricted) format.
History
In its first season, 2018–19, the lea ...
featured 18 clubs, whilst a second-tier reserve League comprised nine clubs. Other than a minimum age of 16, no age restrictions applied to the leagues. Aberdeen intimated at the end of its first season (2018–19) that they would withdraw from the Reserve League to play a variety of challenge matches, several others did likewise. They later entered a small league (under-21 plus three overage) along with three other Scottish clubs and
Brentford
Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross.
Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...
and
Huddersfield Town
Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...
from the English leagues.
Youths
Prior to the introduction of the
Scottish Premier League
The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...
in 1998, the Under-20s previously competed in the youth league administered by the Scottish Football League. An under-20 side then took part in the
SPFL Development League
The SPFL Development League was the top level of youth football in Scotland, which was contested in various formats between 1998 and 2018.
History
A youth league was founded as the Scottish Premier under-18 League in 1998. Clubs fielded under-1 ...
until it was disbanded in 2018. They won the last edition of the SFL competition and the first under the SPL, but they only won it once more (in 2014–15).
From 2015 onwards, it has been possible for the Aberdeen Academy to participate in the
UEFA Youth League
The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the youth teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions League ...
by the under-17/under-18 side winning the previous season's league at that age group; however this has not yet been achieved.
For the 2016-17 edition of the
Scottish Challenge Cup
The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup,Premiership were granted entry to compete against adult teams for the first time in the modern era. Aberdeen U20 won their opening round against
Formartine United
Formartine United Football Club are a Scottish senior association football club from Pitmedden, Aberdeenshire currently playing in the Highland Football League. They joined the Highland League for the 2009–10 season, having been accepted ...
Forfar Athletic
Forfar Athletic Football Club are a Scottish semi-professional football club from the town of Forfar, Angus. They are members of the Scottish Professional Football League and currently play in Scottish League Two. They play their home games a ...
As of 2019, the reserves do not have a constant home ground. Their fixtures are normally played at lower league stadia outwith Aberdeen, either at Glebe Park in
Brechin
Brechin (; gd, Breichin) is a city and former Royal burgh in Angus, Scotland. Traditionally Brechin was described as a city because of its cathedral and its status as the seat of a pre-Reformation Roman Catholic diocese (which continues today ...
,
Balmoor Stadium
Balmoor (also known as Balmoor Stadium) is an association football ground in the Scottish town of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. It is home to Peterhead. The stadium has a capacity of spectators, of which 1,000 can be seated.
The ground was opened ...
in
Peterhead
Peterhead (; gd, Ceann Phàdraig, sco, Peterheid ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is Aberdeenshire's biggest settlement (the city of Aberdeen itself not being a part of the district), with a population of 18,537 at the 2011 Census. ...
Forfar
Forfar ( sco, Farfar, gd, Baile Fharfair) is the county town of Angus, Scotland and the administrative centre for Angus Council, with a new multi-million pound office complex located on the outskirts of the town. As of 2021, the town has a p ...
– although occasionally matches are played at
Pittodrie Stadium
Pittodrie Stadium, commonly referred to as Pittodrie, is an all-seater stadium in Aberdeen, Scotland. Used primarily for football, it has been the home ground of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) club Aberdeen F.C. since they were ...
. In the
2018–19 season, their nominated ground was the recently completed
Balmoral Stadium
Balmoral Stadium is a football ground located in the Cove Bay area of Aberdeen, Scotland. Opened in 2018, it is the home ground of club Cove Rangers. From 2021, it is being shared by Scottish Women's Premier League team Aberdeen.
History
Cove ...
, home of Cove Rangers.
In the event that the long-awaited
New Aberdeen Stadium
The new Aberdeen stadium is a football stadium under early stages of construction in Kingswells, Aberdeen, Scotland. The new stadium, called Kingsford Stadium, would be the home of Scottish Premiership club Aberdeen F.C., Aberdeen FC to replace the ...
is completed, the youth training facilities would certainly move to that location and some of the Reserve League fixtures may also take place there.
Academy background
Aberdeen's geographical isolation from much of Scotland's population is an advantage to the Dons' player recruitment to some extent, as they are the only major club in a region of over 500,000 people so generally have the pick of the promising youngsters in the
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
and
shire
Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is generally synonymous with county. It was first used in Wessex from the beginn ...
. The relative economic power of the club also means that players from the
Central Belt
The Central Belt of Scotland is the area of highest population density within Scotland. Depending on the definition used, it has a population of between 2.4 and 4.2 million (the country's total was around 5.4 million in 2019), including Great ...
are frequently persuaded to move north, and over the decades many of Aberdeen's successful youth products (not least
Willie Miller
William Ferguson Miller MBE (born 2 May 1955) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager, who made a club record 560 league appearances for Aberdeen. Sir Alex Ferguson described Miller as "the best penalty box defender in th ...
Black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
Diamond
Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...
and
Chris Maguire
Christopher Patrick Joseph Maguire (born 16 January 1989) is a Scottish professional footballer. He has previously played for Aberdeen, Derby County, Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham United, Oxford United, Bury, Sunderland and Lincoln City, and ...
) have moved from the west of Scotland to begin their professional careers. In the 21st century Aberdeen have also looked further afield to the English lower leagues for academy recruits as well as senior players.
In 2017, the Aberdeen academy was one of eight across the country designated 'elite' status on the introduction of ''Project Brave'', an SFA initiative to concentrate the development of the best young players at a smaller number of clubs with high quality facilities and coaching than was previously the case.
Scottish Football Alliance The Scottish Football Alliance was a football league football structure set up in Scotland in competition with the Scottish Football League. Its success in the early years of professional football in both England and Scotland made Alliance the bas ...
**Winners: 1932–33, 1935–36
*Scottish Reserve League Cup
**Winners (9): 1950–51, 1951–52, 1956–57, 1957–58, 1972–73, 1973–74, 1978–79, 1984–85, 1996–97
*Scottish 2nd XI Cup
**Winners (6): 1954–55, 1955–56, 1968–69, 1975–76, 1977–78, 1981–82
Youth
*
Scottish Youth Cup The Scottish Youth Cup (also known as the SFA Youth Cup) is an annual Scottish football competition run by the Scottish Football Association for under-18 teams,
SPFL Development League
The SPFL Development League was the top level of youth football in Scotland, which was contested in various formats between 1998 and 2018.
History
A youth league was founded as the Scottish Premier under-18 League in 1998. Clubs fielded under-1 ...
This list focuses on the players who have graduated through Aberdeen's academy since the inception of the
SPL
SPL may refer to:
Association football
* Saudi Professional League
* Scottish Premier League
* SportPesa Premier League, Kenya
* Singapore Premier League
* RoboCup Standard Platform League, matches between autonomous robots
Computing Program ...
in 1998. many other of Aberdeen's earlier
notable players
Notability is the property
of being worthy of notice, having fame, or being considered to be of a high degree of interest, significance, or distinction. It also refers to the capacity to be such. Persons who are notable due to public responsibi ...
, including most of the highly successful Alex Ferguson era also came through the youth system.
''Players currently at Aberdeen in bold ''
*
Russell Anderson
Russell Anderson (born 25 October 1978) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a centre back. He played in the Scottish Premier League for Aberdeen, the Premier League for Sunderland, and the Football League for Plymouth ...
*
Ryan Esson
Ryan John Esson (born 19 March 1980) is a Scottish former professional football goalkeeper. He is currently a goalkeeping coach for Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Esson started his career in 2000, in the Scottish Premier League, as a goalkeepe ...
*
Fergus Tiernan
Fergus Tiernan (born 3 January 1982) is a former football midfielder who retired from the sport in 2009 at the age of 27.
Football career
Raised in Helensburgh, Tiernan began his career at Scottish Premier League club Aberdeen, and also had sp ...
Darren Mackie
Darren Graham Mackie (born 5 January 1982) is a Scottish former footballer who, most recently, played for Inverurie Loco Works as a player/coach. Mackie was born in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland and previously played as a striker for Abe ...
Kevin McNaughton
Kevin Paul McNaughton (born 28 August 1982) is a Scottish professional football player and coach. A versatile player able to play anywhere in defence, McNaughton was also used in a defensive midfield role. He began his career in the Scottish P ...
*
Kevin Rutkiewicz
Kevin Rutkiewicz (born 10 May 1980) is a Scottish professional football player and coach, who is the current manager of Lowland League side East Kilbride. He was formally the manager of Scottish League Two club Stirling Albion. Ruthkiewicz pla ...
*
Ricky Foster
Richard Martyn Foster (born 31 July 1985) is a Scottish footballer. He previously played for Aberdeen, Rangers, Bristol City, St Johnstone, Ross County, Partick Thistle, and Detroit City.
Foster primarily plays as a right back, although he ...
*
Scott Morrison
Scott John Morrison (; born 13 May 1968) is an Australian politician. He served as the 30th prime minister of Australia and as Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia from 2018 to 2022, and is currently the member of parliament (MP) for t ...
*
Zander Diamond
Alexander Kevin "Zander" Diamond (born 12 March 1985) is a Scottish former professional footballer and current assistant manager of Lowland League club Broomhill.
Diamond played as a centre-back and began his career with Scottish Premier Leagu ...
*
Andrew Considine
Andrew MacLaren Considine (born 1 April 1987) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a defender for Scottish Premiership club St Johnstone. He played over 550 times for Aberdeen across 18 years, ranking among the players with most ...
*
Chris Maguire
Christopher Patrick Joseph Maguire (born 16 January 1989) is a Scottish professional footballer. He has previously played for Aberdeen, Derby County, Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham United, Oxford United, Bury, Sunderland and Lincoln City, and ...
Nicky Clark
Nicholas Alexander McCormack Clark (born 3 June 1991) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a striker for St Johnstone. Clark is the son of the former Airdrieonians, Hearts, Rangers and West Ham striker Sandy Clark.
Career Ear ...
*
Peter Pawlett
Peter Ian Pawlett (born 3 February 1991) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Scottish Premiership club Dundee United. He spent much of his early career at Aberdeen and has also played for St Johnstone and Milton Keynes Do ...
*
Ryan Jack
Ryan James Jack (born 27 February 1992) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Rangers and the Scotland national team.
Jack began his career at Aberdeen, spending 17 years connected with the club across yo ...
Mitchel Megginson
Mitch Megginson (born 27 July 1992) is a Scottish Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), striker for Cove Rangers F.C., Cove Rangers.
Club career
Megginson made his debut for Aberdeen F.C., Aberdeen in ...
*
Fraser Fyvie
Fraser Anderson Fyvie (born 27 March 1993) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Scottish Championship side Cove Rangers. He previously played for Aberdeen, Wigan Athletic, Hibernian, and Dundee United, and has re ...
*
Jack Grimmer
Jack Richard Grimmer (born 25 January 1994) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a defender for club Wycombe Wanderers.
A Scotland under-21 international, he began his career at Aberdeen, becoming the club's youngest ever player ...
Ryan Fraser
Ryan Fraser (born 24 February 1994) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a winger for Premier League club Newcastle United and the Scotland national team. He has previously played for Aberdeen, AFC Bournemouth and Ipswich Town. ...
*
Joe Shaughnessy
Joseph Thomas Gordan Shaughnessy (born 6 July 1992) is an Irish professional defender who plays for Dundee. Shaughnessy has previously played for Aberdeen, Forfar Athletic, Falkirk, St Johnstone, Southend United and St Mirren. He has repre ...
Declan McManus
Declan Joseph McManus (born 3 August 1994) is a Scottish professional footballer, who plays as a forward for The New Saints. McManus has previously played for Aberdeen, Fleetwood Town, Greenock Morton, Alloa Athletic, Raith Rovers, Dunferm ...
Cammy Smith
Cameron Smith (born 24 August 1995) is a Scottish association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for Partick Thistle F.C., Partick Thistle in the Scottish Championship. He began his career with Aberdeen ...
Scott McKenna
Scott Fraser McKenna (born 12 November 1996) is a Scottish professional footballer, who plays as a defender for Premier League club Nottingham Forest and the Scotland national team. McKenna has also previously played for Aberdeen as well as A ...
Dean Campbell
Dean Graeme Campbell (born 19 March 2001) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for League Two side Barrow.
Club career Aberdeen
Campbell made his first-team debut for Aberdeen as a late substitute in a league match ...