Who is Micah Hamilton? Former Man City ball boy who scored on debut for Pep Guardiola in Champions League

Dom Farrell

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Who is Micah Hamilton? Former Man City ball boy who scored on debut for Pep Guardiola in Champions League image

Erling Haaland, Julian Alvarez and Phil Foden were among those absent from Manchester City's starting line-up at Red Star Belgrade but Pep Guardiola has a new Champions League goalscorer in his ranks.

City headed to the Serbian capital having secured top spot in Group G with five wins out of five, allowing Guardiola to rest a few of his star names.

Alvarez and Foden took their places on the bench at Rajko Mitic Stadium, with Haaland resting up back in Manchester as he recovers from a foot injury.

It left a couple of vacancies in attack to be filled by graduates from City's academy and one of them in particular took his chance with both hands.

The Sporting News takes a look at the early career — and successful ball-boy efforts — of young star Micah Hamilton.

MORE: Champions League top goal scorers 2023/2024

Who is Micah Hamilton?

Attacking midfielder Hamilton was named on the right-hand side of City's front three against Red Star Belgrade on December 13, 2023, meaning a senior debut for the 20-year-old.

Hamilton was an unused substitute during this season's 1-0 Carabao Cup defeat at Newcastle United and the 3-1 away win over Young Boys in the Champions League. Finally granted the opportunity to show what he could do on the field, he wasted little time in making a mark.

In the 19th minute, Hamilton collected a pass from Matheus Nunes and sized up Aleksandar Dragovic. He skipped around the outside of the Red Star captain and lashed a shot high into the net beyond goalkeeper Omri Glazer.

It made Hamilton the first Englishman to score on his Champions League debut since Marcus Rashford in September 2017. Later in the half, he almost had an assist when Oscar Bobb narrowly failed to convert a low cross from his old academy teammate.

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Micah Hamilton career record

Hamilton is from Manchester and joined City's youth setup as a nine-year-old.

An aptitude for operating off either flank and in central attacking areas helped him to win two England Under-16 international caps.

En route to a second successive U-18 Premier League title, Hamilton enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2020/21, scoring 11 goals and laying on eight assists in the competition.

He has also won three successive Premier League 2 crowns at City and is now captain of the club's Elite Development Squad after suffering with injuries last season.

This term he has generally undertaken the role of provider, with five assists in nine Premier League 2 games without finding the net. Apparently, Hamilton was saving the goals for a much bigger stage.

When Micah Hamilton impressed Pep Guardiola as a ball boy

Boyhood City fan Phil Foden has often spoken about how he was a ball boy when Sergio Aguero scored his unforgettable last-gasp goal to win the Premier League in 2012.

Hamilton is following in that tradition and his experience working the touchlines at the Etihad Stadium brought him his first tactical talking to from Guardiola.

As recounted by The Athletic's Sam Lee, during a 2017 Premier League game against Crystal Palace, the City manager was frustrated by his team's lack of speed around restarts from throw-ins and free-kicks.

Part of the remedy was Guardiola giving a — ahem — pep talk to the ball boys, asking them to make sure any City player taking a throw-in had the ball in their hands rapidly. Hamilton was among those to get a tactical briefing.

After Bobb got in on the act to open up a 2-0 lead in Belgrade and the opening goalscorer won a penalty for Kalvin Phillips to crown a 3-2 win, Hamilton likely received warmer words from Guardiola after his debut.

Coincidentally, it's Crystal Palace up next at the Etihad Stadium this weekend. The key difference is that everyone in the ground will know who Micah Hamilton is this time.

Dom Farrell

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Dom is the senior content producer for Sporting News UK. He previously worked as fan brands editor for Manchester City at Reach Plc. Prior to that, he built more than a decade of experience in the sports journalism industry, primarily for the Stats Perform and Press Association news agencies. Dom has covered major football events on location, including the entirety of Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup in Paris and St Petersburg respectively, along with numerous high-profile Premier League, Champions League and England international matches. Cricket and boxing are his other major sporting passions and he has covered the likes of Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Wladimir Klitschko, Gennadiy Golovkin and Vasyl Lomachenko live from ringside.