Max Alleyne, son of Gloucestershire CCC head coach Mark Alleyne, took a significant step on his own professional sporting journey, making his debut in football’s English Premier League for Manchester City FC.
The 20-year-old started at centre-back and played the full 90 minutes as his side, second in the table behind league leaders Arsenal, played out a 2-2 draw with Brighton and Hove Albion. Alleyne impressed, with statistics website Who Scored awarding him a rating of 7.66 out of 10, the highest of any player on either side. Alleyne’s appearance was his first for Manchester City in any competition, having spent time on loan at Watford FC and having been an unused sub previously. He has represented England at every age-group level between U17 and U21, and was named Manchester City’s U21 player of the year last season.
Alleyne’s father, Mark, is one of Gloucestershire’s favourite sons, both as a player and a coach. He earned 10 ODI caps for England but made his legacy in county white-ball cricket. He represented Gloucestershire over 750 times across formats and captained them to six limited-overs trophies between 1999 and 2003. In his second stint as the county’s coach, He marshalled a T20 Blast title win in 2024.
Despite his father’s success, Max Alleyne says he has never played and doesn’t watch cricket. “He was never pushy with what I did and wanted to do,” he told reporters in May. “I really enjoyed football growing up. He never made me choose between cricket and football. I never really played cricket, I was from quite a small village so there was never really the opportunity. I just played football. I loved it so kept playing.”
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