- Dele Alli (Tottenham)
- Kingsley Coman (Bayern)
- Renato Sanches (Bayern)
- Gianluigi Donnarumma (Milan AC)
- Marcus Rashford (Manchester United)
- Gabriel Jesus (Palmeiras, Man City in January)
- Anthony Martial (Manchester United)
- Marco Asensio (Real Madrid)
- Leroy Sané (Manchester City)
- Ousmane Dembele (Borussia Dortmund)
- Gabriel Barbosa (Inter Milan)
- Lo Celso - PSG
- Brandt - Leverkusen
- Iheanacho - City
- Pulisic - Dortmund
- Tielemans - Anderlecht
- Werner - Leipzig
- Marcos Moreno - La Coruna (on loan from City)
- Jedvaj - Leverkusen
- Ante Coric - Dinamo Zagreb
- Tah - Leverkusen
- Iwobi - Arsenal
- Andre Silva - Porto
- Kovalenko - Donetsk
- Christensen - Bor. Mochen. (on loan from Chelsea)
- Riedewald -AJAX
- Embolo - Schalke
- Sanchez - AJAX
- Emre Mor - Dortmund
- Augustin - PSG
- Daoud - Bor. Monch.
- Lemar - Monaco
- Lucas Hernandez - Atletico Madrid
- Ascacibar - Estudiantes
- Oyarzabal - Sociedad
- Bazoer - Ajax
- Cornet - Lyon
- Unal - Twente (on loan from City)
- Diop - Toulouse
- Guedes - Benfica
- Ramselaar - PSV
- Kessie - Atalanta
- Burke - Leipzig
- Mbappe - Monaco
- Jorge - Flamengo
- Santi Mina - Valencia
- Rajkoic - Maccabi
- Ounas - Bordeaux
- Golovin - CSKA Moscow
- Koziello - Nice
- Bailey - Genk
- Malcom - Bordeaux
- Gray - Leicester
- Horta - Benfica
- Méré - Gijon
- Henrichs - Leverkusen
- Dolberg - AJAX
- Thiago Maia - Santos
- Vallejo - Frankfurt (on loan from Real Madrid)
FourFourTwo's 59 Best Under-21 Wonderkids in the World
- Thread starter Ecstatic
- Start date
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Leverkusen have got a few talented ones in their back four - Tah, Henrichs, Jedvaj. Jedvaj doesn't seem to play much anymore though, don't know if its because of the injuries he's had or whether he's gone down the pecking order.
Coman is always ridiculously overrated.
Alli at No.1!
.
Sure he is good, but the best U21 player?!
. Sure he is good, but the best U21 player?!
I don't think so. He's 20 years old.
2014/15: 16 games with Juve
2015/16: 11 senior caps with France (1 goal) + Bundesliga (23 games - 4 goals) + ECL (8 games - 2 goals)
A promising winger.
Yeah strange ranking but the ranking don't matter.Alli at No.1!
Sure he is good, but the best U21 player?!
The idea is to present 60 players likely to play a key role in the future.
Leon Bailey way too low. I am a bit biased
Why 59?
Only Ali is better than Martial.
No Shaw?
Edit - Crossed 21 just a few months ago.
Edit - Crossed 21 just a few months ago.
I'd put Ousmane Dembele in the top 3, If it was a choice between him and Coman I'd choose Dembele in a heartbeat.
Let's make an XI out of that lot.
Donnarumma
Tah
Christensen
Ridewald
Dahoud
Tielemans
Bazoer
Alli
Dembele
Martial
Rashford
3-4-3 Diamond
Donnarumma
Tah
Christensen
Ridewald
Dahoud
Tielemans
Bazoer
Alli
Dembele
Martial
Rashford
3-4-3 Diamond
No Sanches? Mental.
Annoying how many are on City's books.
Just my personal preference really. Was never blown away by the kid, performance did not and has not matched the hype imo. I'm sure he will turn out well.
You still rate Charni Ekangamene as the better talent?
O. Dembe should be Nr.1 on that list.
Edit: *le
Edit: *le
I agree!
Surprised Ruben Neves isn't on that list I really rate him
Yeah that's odd alright.
I don't think Rashford should be above Martial.
A top ten list would be better. 59 is just hedging your bets.
For Rashford to get to number 5 in 8 months is pretty damn impressive.
My top 5:
1. Dembele
2. Martial
3. Rashford
4. Coman
5. Donnarumma
Iheanacho, Sanches and Alli just miss out.
These players are young but they should be judged on what they've shown so far in a top European league at such a young age.
1. Dembele
2. Martial
3. Rashford
4. Coman
5. Donnarumma
Iheanacho, Sanches and Alli just miss out.
These players are young but they should be judged on what they've shown so far in a top European league at such a young age.
I know it doesn't mean much, but with all the chaos around the England National team it's good to see an Englishman on top of this list.
I'm surprised Neves is not in the list but good to see Pulisic and Dahoud making it, two top young talents.
Lucas Hernandez
Not sure about Pulisic's rating here. A bit too high? Kid's definitely got potential though.
Not sure about Pulisic's rating here. A bit too high? Kid's definitely got potential though.
Ali is a well deserved number one, I have seen him little but I always liked a lot, I´d love to see him someday in Madrid.
Martial and Dembele are both much bigger talents. I'd rather have Sanches and Coman as well.
Sanches is also a very good player. Dembele, Rashford, Martial or even Sane and Asensio are all attacking players with a lot to prove. The individual quality is not always enough.
I'm sure Jesé or Deulofeu were prominent in these lists two or three years ago.
Alli (and Sanches) are midfielders and have already shown personality and character, with the feeling that they are more experienced than their age says, maybe that's why I value them more.
Sanches is a midfielder, Alli is attacking midfielder and plays behind the striker. Dembele, Martial, Sane are winger, so Alli and rest plays in the attacking 3 behind the striker.
now, because it is the system that prevails, but has enough quality to learn and adapt to any position in midfield. I imagine him perfectly in a midfield of three.
Why does Alli have less to prove than Martial, Rashford and Dembele?
When did I say that?
I see them and I think if I could sign now a player for Madrid would be Alli because I think he is already established(and of course he has to prove and improve) and simply because I like him.
I don´t imagine him suddenly disappearing and becoming a player with a medium low profile however I have doubts about the others. Dembele,Asensio,Rashford,Martial,Sane...
I do not see any of them entrenched in the elite.
If the picture was the opposite, Alli at United and Rashford / Martial at Tottenham , the opinions would be the same?
If there are 30 brighter talents in world football than Dahoud, we're in for a real renaissance period. Lists like this are hard to argue, but that one stands out a bit to me.
Fair enough, it seems like you simply have a personal preference for Alli which is completely fine and understandable.
When you said that those attackers have a lot to prove and didn't mention the same for Alli, I guess it came across as strange to me. However, if you were to rate Alli's potential as higher than Rashford's/Martial's/Dembele's, I would be interested to find out what that rating is based on. I know you didn't say that, but if you do think that, it would be something interesting to discuss.
I think all four of those players have shown tremendous ability last season, as their first real season at the very top level and all four seem like they may be able to continue that form, at least certainly Rashford and Dembele have shown it so far this season as well.
To answer your question: If I was a United fan and we had Alli, and Spurs had both Rashford and Martial, I would honestly be extremely jealous and would swap them in a nano-second. Just like how I'm currently very envious of Dortmund for having Dembele and Weigl and rate both of these players above all of United's current options in their respective positions.
So really it's not about bias, I simply consider these players to be absolutely elite young talents and although everything is possible, it would be very difficult to imagine most of them not developing into world-class players.
It's often said that when talking about young players, it's almost pointless to discuss how they'll turn out because there are way too many factors that may affect their development and this breeds somewhat of a cynicism towards them. An example of this is our Reserve/Youth forum. Many good/excellent talents in our academy are constantly rated lower by posters than their true ability reflects, and I believe that has to do with the disappointments of previous experiences with players such as Macheda, Adnan, Anderson and others.
However, when you reach this top, elite level of young talent that we're discussing here, it tends to be more of a sure thing that they'll develop as expected. As an exercise, we can look at the list of previous winners of the Golden Boy award. Only Anderson, Pato and Balotelli have really disappointed. The rest, we can safely say have been world-class players at one point or the other; the likes of Rooney, Fabregas, Aguero, Isco, Gotze, Messi and Pogba.
So I do believe there's a very good chance that players such as Martial, Dembele, Rashford, etc. will develop as well as expected. Of course, a lot depends on mentality and temperament.
Sorry, I have been rambling on and on in this post, but I have always found this topic very interesting and it's exciting to discuss these players, I really do believe they are extremely special talents.
No Alban Lafont?
Good post @NYAS , yes, as you said at the end is a personal preference.
Maybe I've seen too many good attacking players falling out of favor or not meeting all the expectations that had been generated. Maybe I have the wrong feeling that a midfielder well maintained and protected by his club can grow more easily.
Actually from all those players (I don´t know many of them, I just discovered Dahoud thanks to @liamp ) I have not noticed especially in the technical details, but in the whole. I loved Alli in a game in Euro, and possibly was not his best game, but I was surprised for the self-confidence, intensity and calmness that showed in an international match. He seems a very ambitious player. Rashford also seems ambitious and I think that it will help him,something that I think that Martial lacks, but well, it's something really subjective.
Maybe I've seen too many good attacking players falling out of favor or not meeting all the expectations that had been generated. Maybe I have the wrong feeling that a midfielder well maintained and protected by his club can grow more easily.
Actually from all those players (I don´t know many of them, I just discovered Dahoud thanks to @liamp ) I have not noticed especially in the technical details, but in the whole. I loved Alli in a game in Euro, and possibly was not his best game, but I was surprised for the self-confidence, intensity and calmness that showed in an international match. He seems a very ambitious player. Rashford also seems ambitious and I think that it will help him,something that I think that Martial lacks, but well, it's something really subjective.
I wouldn't be surprised if your rivals started sniffing around him after the performance he put in against them.
That Donnarumma lad, still 16 or maybe 17 years old with a single cap from the italian national football team. I reckon that Juventus will sign him as Buffon successor. The Milan of AC's been mediocre recently.