In addition to their first team competing in the

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 ...

Hibernian F.C. Hibernian Football Club (), commonly known as Hibs, is a professional football club based in the Leith area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The club plays in the Scottish Premiership, the top tier of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL). ...

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

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 Hibernian 'A' taking part for six seasons of the arrangement.Scottish Football League C Division overview
Scottish Football Historical Archive Hibs fielded a team for many years in various separate reserve competitions culminating in the Scottish Premier Reserve League, which was abandoned in 2009. 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 – Hibs were its final champions. An

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 ...

was set up in its place, but Hibs 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. 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. The ...

from the English leagues. 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

. Since 2015 it has been possible for the Hibs 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 side winning the previous season's league at that age group. This was first achieved in 2022, and Hibs defeated Norwegian side

Molde FK Molde Fotballklubb () is a professional football club based in Molde, Norway, that competes in Eliteserien, the top flight of Norwegian football. Founded on 19 June 1911, the club was originally known as International and changed its name to ...

penalties Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * Penalty ...

in the

first round First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

of the 2022–23 competition. They then progressed through the

second round The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds e ...

by a 3–1 aggregate score against French club

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

, but then lost 2–1 to

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

in the

knockout phase A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

. For the 2016–17 edition of the

Scottish Challenge Cup The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup,Premiership clubs were granted entry to compete against adult teams for the first time in the modern era. As Hibs were in the second tier that season, it was their senior team who entered the competition. Hibs under-20s first entered the Challenge Cup in the 2017–18 edition, losing 2–1 to

Elgin City Elgin City Football Club (also known as City or The Black and Whites) is a professional senior football club based in Elgin, Moray. Elgin was founded in 1893 and originally played their football in the Highland Football League. The club was g ...

in the first round.

Academy background

Hibs' main area of recruitment is the

Lothian Lothian (; sco, Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n; gd, Lodainn ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Sco ...

and

Borders A border is a geographical boundary. Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film * ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...

region around

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

which has a population of around one million. They face a constant battle with rivals Heart of Midlothian to sign the most promising youngsters in the area. In the past both Hibs and Hearts have signed many players from youth club

Hutchison Vale Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale Football Club (LTHV) are a senior non-league football club based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Currently competing in the , they play their home matches at Saughton Enclosure in the Saughton area of the city. History ...

. In 2016 the

Investors in People Investors in People is a standard for people management, offering accreditation to organisations that adhere to the Investors in People Standard. From 1991 to January 2017, Investors in People was owned by the UK government. As of 1 February 20 ...

''Silver Award'' was bestowed on the Hibernian Academy for its work with the young people connected to the organisation. In 2017, the Hibernian 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. Although the official home of the academy teams is the club's training centre near

Ormiston Ormiston is a village in East Lothian, Scotland, near Tranent, Humbie, Pencaitland and Cranston, located on the north bank of the River Tyne at an elevation of about . The village was the first planned village in Scotland, founded in 1735 ...

, the Under-20 matches usually take place at lower league stadia:

Ainslie Park Ainslie Park is a football stadium located in Edinburgh, Scotland, which is the home ground of Lowland Football League club Spartans and the club's women's team in the Scottish Women's Premier League (SWPL). In addition, Scottish Professional ...

, home of

Spartans F.C. The Spartans Football Club are a Scottish football club based in Edinburgh. They were formed in 1951 by ex-players of Edinburgh University and the original intention was to field a team of graduates of the university. However, the club is no ...

is used most frequently, and fixtures have also been played at the indoor

Oriam Oriam is Scotland's national performance centre for sport, based at Heriot-Watt University's Riccarton campus in Edinburgh. The Scottish Rugby Union and the Scottish Football Association use it as a training facility, Heart of Midlothian F.C. r ...

facility which was the official venue for the reserves in the 2018–19 season.

U20 Development squad

Note: Several players on the list have either made first team appearances for Hibs, or have been loaned to other

SPFL The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As we ...

clubs; however they can still be selected for Development League fixtures whenever available to play.

Honours

Reserves * SFL Division C (North-East) **Winners: 1949–50 **Runners-up: 1952–53, 1954–55 *Scottish Reserve LeagueSenior competition winners
Scottish Football Historical Archive **Winners: 1945–46, 1946–47, 1947–48, 1948–49 *Scottish Reserve League Cup **Winners: 1946–47, 1947–48, 1948–49, 1965–66 *Scottish 2nd XI Cup **Winners: 1884–85, 1938–39, 1945–46, 1946–47 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,

**Winners: 1992,

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

**Runners-up: 1990, 1991 *

**Winners: 2008–09, 2017–18, 2021–22

Notes

Former reserve/youth team players

This list focuses on the players who have graduated through Hibernian's academy, and have made at least 50 first team appearances, 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. This includes a group considered a " golden generation", who helped Hibs to

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

finals in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

and

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

(the latter of which they won), and most of whom went on to play for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. Many other of the club'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 ...

also came through the youth system. Players currently at Hibs in bold. *

Kenny Miller Kenneth Miller (born 23 December 1979) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. Miller, who played as a striker, is one of only five post-war players to have played for both Rangers and Celtic. Miller began his career at ...

Tam McManus Thomas Kelly "Tam" McManus (born 28 February 1981) is a Scottish former footballer. McManus started his career with Hibernian, making over 100 league appearances for the Edinburgh club. During his time there, McManus represented the Scotland ...

* Ian Murray *

Garry O'Connor Garry Lawrence John O'Connor (born 7 May 1983) is a Scottish former professional footballer. He played for Hibernian, Peterhead, Lokomotiv Moscow, Barnsley, Tom Tomsk, Birmingham City, Greenock Morton and represented Scotland. O'Connor began ...

Derek Riordan Derek George Riordan (born 16 January 1983) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a striker. He has been capped three times by the Scotland national team. Riordan started his career with Hibernian in 2001 and had a brief spell o ...

Scott Brown Scott Brown may refer to: Sportsmen *Scott Brown (American football), American college football coach of Kentucky State * Scott Brown (baseball) (born 1956), former Major League Baseball pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds *Scott Brown (footballer, bor ...

Steven Whittaker Steven Gordon Whittaker (born 16 June 1984) is a Scottish former professional footballer and coach, who is currently an assistant manager with Fleetwood Town. He played as a defender. Whittaker began his career with Hibernian and made over 17 ...

Kevin Thomson Kevin Thomson (born 14 October 1984) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. Thomson played as a midfielder for Hibernian (three spells), Rangers, Middlesbrough and Dundee and represented Scotland. Thomson began his car ...

* Steven Fletcher * Kevin McCann * Lewis Stevenson * David Wotherspoon *

Paul Hanlon Paul Thomas Hanlon (born 20 January 1990) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a defender for Scottish Premiership club Hibernian, where he is the current club captain, and the Scotland national team. He began his senior career ...

Jordon Forster Jordon John Forster (born 23 September 1993) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a defender. Forster has previously played for Hibernian, Berwick Rangers, East Fife, Plymouth Argyle, Cheltenham Town, Dundee and Kelty Hearts. ...

* Alex Harris *

Danny Handling Daniel Handling (born 6 February 1994) is a Scottish footballer who plays for Scottish League One side Edinburgh City. Handling has previously played for Hibernian and Dumbarton as well as Berwick Rangers and Raith Rovers on loan. Early life ...

Jason Cummings Jason Steven Cummings (born 1 August 1995) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for A league Men club Central coast Mariners . Born in Scotland, he represents the Australia national team, after previously representing Scotland a ...

* Sam Stanton * Oli Shaw *

Ryan Porteous Ryan Thomas Porteous (born 25 March 1999) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays for English Championship club Watford and the Scotland national team. He has previously played for Hibernian and spent a spell on loan at Edinburgh City ...

References

External links

Youth System background at Hibs.org.uk - 2005 articleHibernian U20 at Soccerway
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hibernian F.C. Under-20s and Academy Hibernian F.C. Scottish reserve football teams Youth football in Scotland Football academies in Scotland UEFA Youth League teams