Manchester City kick off the the Izmir Cup against Galatasaray on Friday 6 April.

Fifty-six clubs from 21 countries will send teams to the U12 Youth Football tournament hosted by Altinordu.

City are one of three sides from England along with Stevenage FC and Sheffield Wednesday who sent a team.

The tournament will be played over three days with the final on Sunday.

City have been drawn in Group A alongside AZ Alkmaar, Galatasaray, Caykur Rizespor, Qabala, Karasu and Altay.

The Premier League leaders have expresed a growing interest in Altinordu’s youth development program.

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The Manchester based outfit have been regularly been sending scouts to the Turkish second-tier side recently.

Altinordu have invested heavily in building one of the most most impressive youth development setups in Turkey.

Club president Seyit Mehmet Ozkan revealed that he has drawn inspiration from the cantera system employed by Spanish sides – Athletic Bilbao in particular – as being the inspiration behind his grand master plan. “Athletic Bilbao were my inspiration,” he said in my recent article for the Guardian. “In fact we built close ties with the club four years ago and are completely behind this system.”

The club have already had a few early success stories with 21-year-old Caglar Soyuncu at Freiburg and 20-year-old Cengiz Under joining Roma as the most expensive Turkish international to leave the Super Lig for £12 million.