Getting shirty about youth

6:03pm Monday 18th August 2008

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City Gent are putting their shirt on City’s youth – quite literally.

The popular Bantams fanzine have had a special ‘Gents on Tour’ T-shirt produced to sell and the proceeds will be used to sponsor youth team player Andrew Villermann.

They are hoping it brings the same luck to the teenager as it did to Adrian Bellamy, who they sponsored last season in a similar scheme.

The centre half made it into the first-team squad this year and appeared in pre-season friendlies.

Gent editor Mike Harrison said: “We have always had the ethos that supporting the youth team is particularly worthwhile and it’s all the more satisfying if the lads progress.

“People say it costs a lot of money to run but it has to pay off in the end.

“And if the young lads don’t make it, at least they will have Bradford City in their hearts, which is a very worthwhile thing.”

Villermann’s dad Ron wrote to Harrison to ask if the fanzine was interested in sponsoring his son.

And Harrison was only too happy to oblige, saying: “We were looking to do something anyway so it was a nice coincidence that Andrew’s dad is a City Gent reader and that there is a connection there, rather than us just picking someone at random.”

Ron said: “I’m pleased to say that Andy comes from a family of Bradford City supporters. I started supporting City in the 1968-69 promotion season and my wife some years later after I saved her from the ‘dark side’ at Elland Road!”

Villermann, a pacy defender who can play centre half or left back, has been on the club’s books since 2002 when he was signed by City’s centre of excellence as an under-11 player.

T-shirts, priced £12, can be bought from Harrison at miketallgent@btinternet.com and are available on request from the club shop.