The 50 best wonderkids in football right now

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Zehner

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They got the top spots right I think although the order doesn't make much sense. Reyna for instance is maybe the third most promising youngster in Dortmund but not in the world. It's also weird to have Reinier ahead of Moukoko.

But it's remarkable how many players aged 17 or younger broke through during the last year.
 

diarm

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Zehner said:
They got the top spots right I think although the order doesn't make much sense. Reyna for instance is maybe the third most promising youngster in Dortmund but not in the world. It's also weird to have Reinier ahead of Moukoko.

But it's remarkable how many players aged 17 or younger broke through during the last year.
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Perhaps a little easier to throw a young lad in without 60,000 people screaming at him?
 

Botim

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Gazza said:
Any excuse for a bit of nostalgia
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/first-draft-top-100-youngsters-in-the-world-list.30449/
20 years ago!
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1. Djibril Cisse (STR, Auxerre)
2. Andres D'Allesandro (AM, River Plate)
3. Leandro Bonfim (AM, Vitoria/PSV Eindhoven)
4. Fernando Jose Torres (STR, Atletico Madrid)
5. Jermaine Pennant (R/WNG, Arsenal)
6. Rafael Van der Vaart (C/MF, Ajax)
7. Florent Sinama-Pongolle (STR, Le Havre/Liverpool)
8. Piotr Trochowski (AM, FC Bayern Munich)
9. Anthony Le Tallec (AM/CFWD, Le Havre/Liverpool)
10. Mourad Meghni (AM, Bologna)

That top ten doesn't bode well for the youngsters on this new list
 

Tottenhamguy

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Interested to see how Fabio Silva develops, Nuno certainly trusts him.
 

AFC NimbleThumb

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Botim said:
1. Djibril Cisse (STR, Auxerre)
2. Andres D'Allesandro (AM, River Plate)
3. Leandro Bonfim (AM, Vitoria/PSV Eindhoven)
4. Fernando Jose Torres (STR, Atletico Madrid)
5. Jermaine Pennant (R/WNG, Arsenal)
6. Rafael Van der Vaart (C/MF, Ajax)
7. Florent Sinama-Pongolle (STR, Le Havre/Liverpool)
8. Piotr Trochowski (AM, FC Bayern Munich)
9. Anthony Le Tallec (AM/CFWD, Le Havre/Liverpool)
10. Mourad Meghni (AM, Bologna)

That top ten doesn't bode well for the youngsters on this new list
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A few Championship Manager legends there.

Trochowski!!!!
 

Schmeichel's Cartwheel

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Botim said:
1. Djibril Cisse (STR, Auxerre)
2. Andres D'Allesandro (AM, River Plate)
3. Leandro Bonfim (AM, Vitoria/PSV Eindhoven)
4. Fernando Jose Torres (STR, Atletico Madrid)
5. Jermaine Pennant (R/WNG, Arsenal)
6. Rafael Van der Vaart (C/MF, Ajax)
7. Florent Sinama-Pongolle (STR, Le Havre/Liverpool)
8. Piotr Trochowski (AM, FC Bayern Munich)
9. Anthony Le Tallec (AM/CFWD, Le Havre/Liverpool)
10. Mourad Meghni (AM, Bologna)

That top ten doesn't bode well for the youngsters on this new list
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Scousers must have thought they’d won the lottery

I remember the hype for Meghni. The “new Zidane” & all that.
 

groovyalbert

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Botim said:
1. Djibril Cisse (STR, Auxerre)
2. Andres D'Allesandro (AM, River Plate)
3. Leandro Bonfim (AM, Vitoria/PSV Eindhoven)
4. Fernando Jose Torres (STR, Atletico Madrid)
5. Jermaine Pennant (R/WNG, Arsenal)
6. Rafael Van der Vaart (C/MF, Ajax)
7. Florent Sinama-Pongolle (STR, Le Havre/Liverpool)
8. Piotr Trochowski (AM, FC Bayern Munich)
9. Anthony Le Tallec (AM/CFWD, Le Havre/Liverpool)
10. Mourad Meghni (AM, Bologna)

That top ten doesn't bode well for the youngsters on this new list
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Makes more sense paying attention to the other end.

Kaka down in 95th. Just a mere 88 places lower than the great Florent Sinama-Pongolle.
 

Infordin

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Where on earth is Pedri?

He should be number 1, in my opinion.
 

Red Stone

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Regardless of how these players turn out in the end, Dortmund are fecking stacked at the moment. Bellingham, Reyna and Moukoko on the list, plus Haaland and Sancho as well. Hundreds of millions of pounds of talent in their ranks. Their recruitment is absolutely superb. No two ways about it.

I didn't include Reinier because he's on loan from Real Madrid, another team that has been stockpiling world class youngsters lately. Makes me happy that we've started looking more into unearthing gems than buying them ready-made. It's definitely the way forward now, with transfer fees blowing up the way they are. It'll be impossible to compete with PSG and City when buying the finished article costs £200m, which is eventually going to be the norm.
 

paraguayo

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Zehner said:
They got the top spots right I think although the order doesn't make much sense. Reyna for instance is maybe the third most promising youngster in Dortmund but not in the world. It's also weird to have Reinier ahead of Moukoko.
.
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I think because Reinier's generation won the U17 world cup (as well as Veron, Magno and Kaio Jorge)

although Ângelo Gabriel is by far a much better prospect than all these 4 but did not feature in the list. These lists are usually not very good for non-Euros

edit: Reinier pulled out of the world cup actually
 

B20

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Tarrou said:
Though it was met with derision at the time, it is starting to become more and more clear why Birmingham City made the decision to retire Jude Bellingham’s No.22 shirt following his departure from the club over the summer.

wut? :lol:
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That is just mad.
 

do.ob

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Reyna at #3 seems a bit random. I think by far most people would prefer Moukoko or Bellingham if they had to pick between the three, so he's more like #3 at his club. Anyway the nature of these lists is that they are random and the nature of teenage wonderkids is that most of them end up where you think they will.


Tarrou said:
wut? :lol:
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B20 said:
That is just mad.
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At age 17 he's regularly starting for Dortmund, including their last 5 CL games or their cup game against Gladbach and he's already standing out in some of them. I think there is a good chance that no one will question why they retired his shirt number anymore in 10 years. Having said that, the actual reason why they did so supposedly was that, instead of using his academy contract to leave them for (basically) free, he signed a senior contract, just so they could get a fat fee for him.
 
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ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg

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do.ob said:
Reyna at #3 seems a bit random. I think by far most people would prefer Moukoko or Bellingham if they had to pick between the three, so he's more like #3 at his club. Anyway the nature of these lists is that they are random and the nature of teenage wonderkids is that most of them end up where you think they will.





At age 17 he's regularly starting for Dortmund, including their last 5 CL games or their cup game against Gladbach and he's already standing out in some of them. I think there is a good chance that no one will question why they retired his shirt number anymore in 10 years. Having said that, the actual reason why they did so supposedly was that, instead of using his academy contract to leave them for (basically) free, he signed a senior contract, just so they could get a fat fee for him.
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it doesn’t matter whether he’s Pele - you don’t retire a shirt for a youth player who played 50 games for a club.

It will always be a joke of a decision.
 

Idxomer

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ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg said:
it doesn’t matter whether he’s Pele - you don’t retire a shirt for a youth player who played 50 games for a club.

It will always be a joke of a decision.
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I know of two players in football whose clubs retired their numbers, Paolo Maldini and Jude Bellingham.
 

DWelbz19

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Ansu Fati who is no.1 on the list and was boy wonder for the early season, has been out since November is allegedly facing another set-back on his return. Some rumours are saying he will miss the whole season; some are saying he is due for a third operation; some are saying he hasn't even had a second! Though I guess in any case, he's still more than young enough to recover from it.

Good to see Amad in there, though I'd have thought the likes of Mejbri and Shoretire would be somewhere in these lists. I guess the major difference between them and a lot of the talent in this article is a lot of them are playing senior football already?
 

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Redlyn

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do.ob said:
At age 17 he's regularly starting for Dortmund, including their last 5 CL games or their cup game against Gladbach and he's already standing out in some of them. I think there is a good chance that no one will question why they retired his shirt number anymore in 10 years. Having said that, the actual reason why they did so supposedly was that, instead of using his academy contract to leave them for (basically) free, he signed a senior contract, just so they could get a fat fee for him.
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Even if he turns out to be Messi and Ronaldo rolled into one, which remains to be seen, still wouldn't explain retiring a shirt number at all, nevermind for a kid who just started his career.

Edit: Looked it up. Apparently "to remember one of our own and to inspire others".
 
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