St Albans City have seen another of their young stars move into the professional game and earn a transfer to the Championship.

Alex Lankshear was the first of them, moving to Blackpool in August, and he has been followed by Riccardo Di Trolio who has made the switch to Coventry City.

The 17-year-old will join up with the Sky Blues' U21 squad in the summer, spending the remainder of this campaign on loan back at Clarence Park in the meantime.

Speaking on the Coventry website, Di Trolio said: "I’m buzzing. It’s always been a dream for me to sign my first professional contract and to do it with a club like Coventry is the icing on the cake.

"The club has a great history and a great academy and I can’t wait to get going when I come back next season.

"I’m looking forward to showing people what I can do and keep on playing games and developing.

"I would say I’m a no-nonsense centre-back. I like to be strong in tackles and I love defending and keeping clean sheets.

"Hopefully I can keep that up here."

The signing has been hastened by Coventry's new head of recruitment, Dean Austin, who swapped Clarence Park for the Coventry Building Society Arena in December.

Di Trolio's current manager was pleased to still have him at his disposal and was pleased with what he saw as he played 90 minutes in Saints' 1-0 National League South win at Taunton Town.

David Noble said: "Ricky needed a few games as he hasn’t played in a while. 

"He has been down to start a couple recently but they have been called off. 

"Getting minutes in his legs was good and he did very well."