Reading FC U21

The club traces itself to a public meeting at the Bridge Street Rooms on Christmas Day 1871, called by Joseph Edward Sydenham, which puts it among the oldest professional sides in England. The nickname Royals nods to Berkshire's status as a royal county.

Nothing in that long history matches the 2005–06 season, when Steve Coppell's side won the Championship with 106 points, a record haul for an English professional league campaign, and went up to the Premier League for the first time. They finished eighth in that debut top-flight season. Brian McDermott took them back up in 2011–12, but the return lasted only a year before relegation. Further down the divisions, Reading have collected the Third Division South title, the old Division Two and the Fourth Division, along with the Full Members' Cup, beaten Luton Town 4–1 in the 1988 final.

The academy has had its moments too: Michael Olise came through the ranks before his move to Crystal Palace and, later, Bayern Munich.

For 102 years the club's home was Elm Park. That stadium, now known as the Select Car Leasing Stadium, holds 24,161 and sits in Reading, the Berkshire town whose name the club has carried since that Christmas meeting nearly a century and a half ago.