(quoted from J.League official website)

Cerezo Osaka are nominated for the Best Youth Development Club which will be decided and announced in the J.League Awards event scheduled to take place at Yokohama Arena on December 18, the J.League announced today. Other nominees include Kashiwa Reysol, Yokohama F. Marinos, Gamba Osaka, and Kyoto Sanga.

According to the official release, 5 players who belonged to Cerezo Osaka U-18 or U-15 in the past signed contracts with the J.League clubs in the 2018 season: Hinata Kida, Motohiko Nakajima, Hiroto Yamada, Masaki Ikeda (Fukushima United), and Raisei Shimazu (Zweigen Kanazawa).

Cerezo Osaka received this award in 2013, when the players like Hotaru Yamaguchi, Takahiro Ogihara, Kenyu Sugimoto, and Takumi Minamino started to make their names after Shinji Kagawa, Takashi Inui, and Hiroshi Kiyotake left for Europe.