Academy manager Simon Hayward praises the youngester's hard work and character
Ethan Ampadu has won Wales’ Young Player of the Year Award for 2016.
Ethan picked up the accolade at a ceremony at the Vale Resort, near Cardiff, in front of senior Welsh players like Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey on Tuesday night.
The youngster has had an eventful year. He became Exeter City’s youngest first team player when he made his debut against Brentford in the EFL Cup earlier this season aged just 15 years, 10 months and 26 days. He has played nine games for City already this season and also trained with the Wales’ squad before their successful Euro 2016 campaign.
His rise to prominence both with Wales and Exeter City, over the past few months, has come as no surprise to those that work with him at St James Park.
Academy manager Simon Hayward says the award is recognition of the hard work Ethan has put in over the last nine seasons at the club.
“I am obviously delighted for him,” said Simon. “It is a prestigious award and I think with all the hard work he has put in, and all the results he is achieving, it is very well deserved.
“His progress with his football has been fantastic, but beyond that he is a very decent young man as well. I am pleased that has been recognised.
“Obviously everyone has seen him perform well for the first team this season, but perhaps the bit that gets missed is that he has done nine complete years’ work in the academy. So that is an awful lot of hard work, dedication and commitment over that time.
“He deserves the bulk of the credit as he is the one that has done the work, but his parents are fantastic influence on him and there is an awful lot of staff at the academy who have put time, effort and energy in to help him as well.
“It is just further recognition of the nine years’ hard work that has gone in to getting him where he is now and we will certainly be continuing to do everything we can to help him, just like we do with all our other young players, in the hope that he has many more positive days in the future as well.
“He has got a lot of things left to achieve in his career and this hopefully becomes one of many awards he will pick up the future.”