There is a real buzz around any football ground when home-grown talent begins to emerge and make a mark in the first team.

Leicester City currently have a very promising crop of young players they hope will make the step up to challenge for a first team place and the most exciting of them is 18-year-old striker Jeff Schlupp.

Schlupp, a contender in the Young Sportsman section of the Mercury Sports Awards, has had an incredible year which has seen him step up from youth team level to go out on a successful loan spell with Brentford, play at Wembley, make his Leicester City debut, score a hat-trick in the Carling Cup and be called up to the full Ghana international squad.

He now has the prospect of playing for the country of his parents' birth in the African Cup of Nations, taking place in the new year.

Hamburg-born but hailing from Milton Keynes, Schlupp was initially handed a first team squad number by Paulo Sousa.

But he caught the eye of Sven-Goran Eriksson in the FA Youth Cup last season and was invited to join the first team squad for training before joining Brentford for senior experience.

He made his senior debut in a 1-0 defeat against Huddersfield Town as a substitute in March and on his first full senior appearance he scored two goals as the Bees beat Carlisle United 2-1.

He went on to score six times in nine appearances and hit the post in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Final at Wembley as Brentford lost 1-0 to Carlisle United.

He returned to City and made his City debut in the Carling Cup at Rotherham United in August. He scored a hat-trick – the first Leicester City player to do so since 1945.

He followed that up by making his full league debut in the 2-0 home defeat to Reading four days later.

He is considered the brightest of City's rising stars.

Schlupp is quick to praise the City academy staff, who have nurtured his talent for six years.

"I've had a lot of help from Jon Rudkin (academy manager) and the academy staff here who have done a great job with me," he says.

"I've been here six years and now I'm hoping for more experience in the senior squad.

"The next steps have to be playing well if given the opportunity, carry on working hard to play for Leicester and then, hopefully, be involved in the African Cup of Nations for Ghana."

See the full list of sports awards nominees and send in your nominations here