YORK College’s sports department have toasted a successful year of success for past-and-present pupils.

Ronaldo Vieira, who left Sim Balk Lane in 2015 to start a professional career with Leeds United, has just secured a £6.2million move to Italian Serie A giants Sampdoria at the age of 20, having first grabbed people’s attention playing for the college team.

Other York College alumni making strides in the professional game are Ronaldo’s brother Romario Vieira and Alfie Beestin, who are both on the books of Doncaster Rovers, while 19-year-old Harry Sheppeard has signed a two-year deal with Sheffield United, having been an integral player in the football development centre team.

Talented midfielder Reece Kral has also secured a scholarship at St Louis Community College in Missouri, USA with sports therapy degree student Lewis Bulmer about to start a coveted internship with the Society of Sports Therapists at York University in Canada this September.

Further individual achievement saw sport and exercise students Issie Spray and Zoe Belding gain selection for the English Colleges Football Association National Team (ECFA) while Gaz Lee, the head of York College women’s football, was appointed to the ECFA’s national coaching team

Sport and exercise science student Lucy Hadaway also won long jump bronze at the England Under-20 Championships and British Senior Championships, having earlier taken silver for England Schools at the World Championships in France and bronze at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Bermuda.

Team success in 2018 saw the men’s football development centre win the National League and reach the national final, while the women’s basketball team were crowned Yorkshire and Humberside regional champions and reached the AoC National Sports Championships for the first time in the college’s history.