Ricky King confirmed as new Swansea City Under-18s' Head Coach

Swansea City can confirm the appointment of Ricky King as the club's new under-18s' head coach.

King - who has been the coach of Swansea City Under-16s for the past 18 months - makes the step up to the professional development phase and will work alongside Ollie Jefferies.

He is the former head coach of the Vancouver Whitecaps Under-19s, as well as their former under-17 head coach and technical coordinator for the Canadian club.

King also had a stint in America with the New York Red Bulls academy, where he worked with Leeds United and United States midfielder Tyler Adams. 

And King is looking forward to working with a group of Swansea players he has previous knowledge of from his time with the under-16s.

"I'm very excited that I get to work with a lot of the boys again. The opportunity to continue to work with them again is great," he said.

"I can't wait to get to work with some of the second years as well, as I haven't had the chance to fully work with them.

"I've spent the 10 years before coming to Swansea working in the professional development phase, so it's exciting to go back to working in that environment.

"I was away from the UK for around 15 years and Swansea's reputation and its history of bringing players through the academy to first-team level is what attracted me to the club.

"I'm looking forward to the season ahead, everyone has worked so hard in pre-season and now it's all about developing these young players."