Aston Villa have hope for the future in their midfield starlet, who was one goal away from sharing the tournament’s Golden Boot.
The inaugural NextGen Series concluded last weekend, with Inter Milan beating Ajax in the final.
Liverpool finished in third place, beating Marseille 2-0 in the play-off, but none of their players could match the individual achievements of Aston Villa’s Gary Gardner.
There were four English clubs competing in all, with Manchester City and Tottenham completing the quartet.
The tournament’s top scorers were Jean Marie Dongou, a centre forward from Cameroon who plays for Barcelona, and Ajax’s 17-year-old Dane, Viktor Fischer who both each scored seven goals in total.
Gary Gardner scored six times, just missing out on a share of the honour, but his haul remains a superb achievement for a midfield player.
He also scored more goals than any other English player. Tottenham’s attacking midfielder Alex Pritchard was the closest of Gardner’s compatriots, netting four goals.
Villa finished top of their group, which featured Rosenborg, Fenerbahce, and runners-up Ajax, who defeated Liverpool 6-0 in the semi-finals.
Villa were eliminated by Marseille in the quarter-finals, losing 2-1 in extra-time, after Gardner had netted a 90th minute equaliser to keep his side in the tie.
Fenerbahce and Rosenborg both conceded a single goal to Gardner, but his standout performance was his hat-trick in the 3-0 win over Ajax in November.
Two days later he joined Championship side Coventry City on loan, before being recalled to Villa after a month.
Since December he has very much become a part of Alex McLeish’s first team squad, playing all 90 minutes in the 1-0 loss to Manchester City, and made his eighth Premier League appearance of the season coming on as a substitute against Arsenal on Saturday.
You can watch the highlights of Gardner’s hat-trick against Ajax here:
image: © ell brown
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