Birmingham City U21

Progress at this level is measured in cup finals and call-ups rather than league position, and the last of those finals still stings a little: in 2019 Birmingham City's under-23s reached the Professional Development League final and lost it to Leeds United. Fixtures move around depending on the opponent and the occasion — bigger nights are taken to St Andrew's, while the regular Premier League Cup and Professional Development League schedule is more often played out at the Arden Garages Stadium in Stratford-upon-Avon, with Loughborough University's ground also used under a regional academy arrangement.

The side carries the parent club's colours and history rather than one of its own, tracing back to the Small Heath Alliance side founded in 1875, and the honours that matter most to Birmingham City sit with the first team rather than the development squad: four Second Division and Championship titles, two League Cups. What the academy has built its reputation on instead is production. In 1966–67 the youth side itself reached an FA Youth Cup final, losing to Sunderland.

No name has done more for that reputation lately than Jude Bellingham, who joined the academy at eight years old and was 16 when he became Birmingham City's youngest-ever first-team player and goalscorer in 2019. His brother Jobe followed the same staircase up through the age groups and made his own first-team debut in 2022.