A YOUNG footballer from Ryedale has been snapped up by a team in the EFL.

12-year-old Alfie Grice has just signed his first professional contract after joining the newly-reinstated Huddersfield Town Academy on a two-year contract.

Alfie joins the Terriers having started out at Heslerton Juniors, and has more recently played for Brooklyn Juniors.

He has also spent two seasons with York City’s academy and represented the North of England in the Junior Premier League Representative Team’s squad for the 2023-24 season.

That saw him play against Academy sides from Manchester United, Leeds United and Bradford City.

Playing as a forward earlier in his football journey and being a productive goal scorer for his teams throughout, Alfie has more recently converted to a centre-back under his coaches at York City due to his physicality and ability to control games from the back.

That has led comparisons to be made between him and Yorkshire-born England and Manchester City star John Stones based on his style of play and on-pitch characteristics.

Alfie is exited to get started when the academy programme officially gets underway over the coming weeks and has strong ambitions to play for England one day in the future.

It is an exciting time for Huddersfield, despite their first-team suffering relegation from the Sky Bet Championship last season.

Under new American owner Kevin Nagle, who acquired 100 per cent of the club just over a year ago, there has been significant investment in the infrastructure at the club.

That has included the re-introduction of the club’s academy, which is looking to operate at Category Two and above.

The club is aiming to progress back to the top-flight, with the restarting of their academy just one part of their plans to get there.