Alex Williams joins exclusive Man City club ahead of Fulham tributes

Alex Williams is the latest Manchester City star to have a pitch at the training ground named after him.

Since the £200m facility opened up near the stadium nearly a decade ago, David Silva, Vincent Kompany, Sergio Aguero, Joe Hart, Fernandinho and Yaya Toure have all had training pitches named after them to recognise their contributions to the football club. As former goalkeeper and City in the Community (CITC) head Williams worked his final fortnight in the job, the club surprised him by adding his name to that list after officially renaming the blue community pitch at the City Football Academy in his honour.

Underneath the banner, a description thanks Williams for his 'compassion, vision and commitment to our community'. There will be further tributes at the Fulham game on Saturday including a guard of honour from local children, while Williams has also been made a life president of CITC.

After signing on to play for the club when he left school, Williams worked his way up to become the club's No.1 goalkeeper and bounced back from the disappointment of the team being relegated from the top flight with defeat to Luton by playing an integral role in getting them promoted again two years later. As one of the first modern-day black goalkeepers, the boy from Moss Side whose parents were part of the Windrush generation had to deal with racism from neighbours, teammates, coaches, and fans as he made his way in the game.

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His career was cut short by a serious back injury and he retired at 25, but has worked for the club's charity CITC for more than three decades to extend his association with City to almost 45 years. During that