World Soccer's 50 Most Promising Teenagers

Sadick ADAMS (Ghana) [Atletico]
AISSATI (Holland) [PSV]
Alexandre PATO (Brazil) [AC Milan]
ANDERSON (Brazil) [Man U]
Gareth BALE (Wales) [Tottenham]
Gio DOS SANTOS (Mexico) [Barca]
Sergio AGUERO (Argentina) [Atletico]
Ever BANEGA (Argentina) [Vaelncia]
Bojan KRKIC (Spain) [Barca]
BRENO (Brazil) [Bayern]
Gerardo BRUNA (Argentina) [Liverpool]
BUONANOTTE (Argentina) [River]
Macauley CHRISANTUS (Nigeria) [Hamburg]
Angel DI MARIA (Argentina) [Benfica]
Franco DI SANTO (Argentina) [Chelsea]
Karim BENZEMA (France) [Lyon]
Dumitru COPIL (Romania) [Hearts]
Kermit ERASMUS (South Africa) [Feyenoord]
FABIO (Brazil) [Manchester United]
FABIO COENTRAO (Portugal) [Benfica]
Marauane FELLAINI (Belgium) [Standard]
GUILHERME (Brazil)
Nour HADHRIA (Tunisia)
Rabul IBRAHIM (Nigeria) [Sporting]
Damian Ismodes (Peru)
Lorenzo DE SILVESTRI (Italy) [Lazio]
KERLON (Brazil)
Toni KROOS (Germany) [Bayern]
LULINHA (Brazil)
Sapol MANI (Togo)
Juan MATA (Spain) [Valencia]
Cristaina NAZARITH (COLOMBIA)
Aaron NIGUEZ (Spain) [Valencia]
Daniel OPARE (Ghana) [Real Madrid]
Ransford OSEI (Ghana)
Fran MERIDA (Spain) [Arsenal]
Nikolay MIHAYLOV (Bulgaria) [Liverpool]
Mesut OZIL (Germany) [Schalke]
RENATO AUGUSTO (Brazil)
Micah RICHARDS (England) [Man City]
Andrea RUSSOTTO (Italy) [Treviso]
Henri SAIVET (France)
ALEXIS SANCHEZ (Chile) [River]
Marek SUCHY (Czech Republic) [Slavia]
Sergio TEJERA (Spain) [Chelsea]
Ivan RAKITIC (Croatia) [Schalke]
Abdou TRAORE (Burkina Faso) [Rosenborg]
Gregory VAN DER WIEL (Holland) [Ajax]
Carlos VELA (Mexico) [Arsenal]
Theo WALCOTT (England) [Arsenal]

If you're including Merida and Vela ahead of Armand Traoré then the list is fundamentally flawed!

It's not in any particular order.

Let's see which players, out of this list, Arsene Wenger will 'discover'.

It would be even more fun to count how many either Barca or Real Madrid try to illegally sign by tapping them up.

I think Real Madrid are already after the Beckenbaur-like Breno.

Juego de la Okkas wrote:I think Real Madrid are already after the Beckenbaur-like Breno.

Where would that leave Gago? Unless they switched to playing a 3 man midfield.

Would be a bad move for the guy. But ambitious to be making comparing him to Beckenbauer already

They only compare him to Beckenbauer due to the fact he's a centre-back who likes to go forward. Maybe 'Lucio-like' would be more apt.

Tweedle wrote:It would be even more fun to count how many either Barca or Real Madrid try to illegally sign by tapping them up.

Have you made a typo Tweedle? "Barça or Real Madrid"? Don't you mean "Arsenal or Liverpool" ?

Marko Marin is missing on that list.

In the article they actually say how Arsenal hid Merida in the Basque Country until his sixteenth birthday, when he could sign a contract with them.

Interesting to note that many of those are already at big clubs...I think we're starting to see a big shift in football - players are breaking through to big clubs and first teams at a younger and younger age, and with the intensity of matches today and the congested fixture list, players' careers will be shorter. We used to see players playing for up to 20 years if they stayed fit, but soon I can't see it being more than 12-15. Cesc, Messi, Bojan, etc. may well retire by the time they're 30.

That also brings up the point about wages - if they need to earn enough to survive till they're a 100 years old, based on just a 12-15 year career, no wonder they want every cent possible. Ok, sorry to take the thread off topic.

What article? Can you provide a link.

@ Kas

There's a difference between signing a young player and tapping up a young player

Juego de la Okkas wrote:In the article they actually say how Arsenal hid Merida in the Basque Country until his sixteenth birthday, when he could sign a contract with them.

Could you post the full article, or a link to it? Would be interesting to read more about some of the names I don't know from that list.

kas wrote:Interesting to note that many of those are already at big clubs...I think we're starting to see a big shift in football - players are breaking through to big clubs and first teams at a younger and younger age, and with the intensity of matches today and the congested fixture list, players' careers will be shorter. We used to see players playing for up to 20 years if they stayed fit, but soon I can't see it being more than 12-15. Cesc, Messi, Bojan, etc. may well retire by the time they're 30.

I doubt it. With the increase in fixtures have come better phyio techniques and training methods.

Back in the 80s you used to get plenty of players retiring in their mid tenties though injuries, which you don't see as much now.

Players now are playing for longer and longer - just look at Lazio's keeper, Paulo Maldini, or Teddy Sheringham!

It's in Novembers edition of World Soccer. They'll probably post the article when the new one comes out.

I'll give you the gist of Merida's transfer:
Merida and his parents had signed a contract of affiliation with Barca when he was fourteen - a non-legally binding document. Wenger's scout in Spain (Francis Cagiggal) made him aware of this so they sent him to the Basque Country for four months. When he finally turned sixteen he was able to sign for Arsenal.

A Spanish court ordered Arsenal to pay £2.1 million in compensation

Technically we shouldn't have had to have paid anything. I'm hoping Barca also were made to pay £2m for stealing him from his local boys footy club?

Benfica has 2 of those in that list:

Di Maria
Fabio Coentrao

Plus Freddy Adu..

Building for the future...

It's not legally binding in the sense you can't make a fourteen year old sign a contract. There's a big difference in signing a 14-year old from his local club, and taking advantage of the fact that he was unable to sign a professional contract with Barca.

Fabio Coentrao - Described as a Robben-like left sided midfielder. Is this right?

Juego de la Okkas wrote:It's not legally binding in the sense you can't make a fourteen year old sign a contract. There's a big difference in signing a 14-year old from his local club, and taking advantage of the fact that he was unable to sign a professional contract with Barca.

Sounds about the same to me. The article clearly states that the agreement wasn't legally binding. I'm sure Barca could have made it legally binding if they had wished.

If anyone has been ripped off here its us, who have been forced to pay out on a document that had no legal weight! Merida would never have got a chance at Barca anyway. If Cesc isn't good enough for the first team, then God knows who is

Valdes, Guardiola, Xavi, Iniesta, Jorquera, Puyol, Sergi, De la Pena

Cesc at 16 wasn't good enough for the first team. To say that he wouldn't have been given an opportunity is a load of Cr@p, it's not Real Madrid.

Tweedle wrote:

Juego de la Okkas wrote:It's not legally binding in the sense you can't make a fourteen year old sign a contract. There's a big difference in signing a 14-year old from his local club, and taking advantage of the fact that he was unable to sign a professional contract with Barca.

Sounds about the same to me. The article clearly states that the agreement wasn't legally binding. I'm sure Barca could have made it legally binding if they had wished.

If anyone has been ripped off here its us, who have been forced to pay out on a document that had no legal weight! Merida would never have got a chance at Barca anyway. If Cesc isn't good enough for the first team, then God knows who is

What? He did have a contract at Barça, and because of Arsenal's interest and him agreeing a deal with them, he stopped coming to training. It's only fair that we get compensated for that.

As for taking boys at a younger age from their small local clubs, I'm not sure how that works...maybe they don't have a contract?

I've never heard of most of them and i'm sure i've never seen most of them play. Don't really know what we're supposed to take from that list. Also i'm guessing whoever made the list has just picked the highly rated youngsters in G14 clubs reserves, that's what it looks like to me.

JESUS these people know who van der Wiel is.

I have been saying hes the new Frank Rijkaard for months !

Strange that Fabio Coentrão is the only Portguese on the list, when I can think of 3 or 4 players of the same age, more promising.

Such as...

Bruno Gama, Pele and Antunes.

The only one of heard of is Antunes, Juve were apparently interested in signing him. Has he moved or is he still at his old club?

Juego de la Okkas wrote:Sadick ADAMS (Ghana)
AISSATI (Holland)
Alexandre PATO (Brazil)
ANDERSON (Brazil)
Gareth BALE (Wales)
Gio DOS SANTOS (Mexico)
Sergio AGUERO (Argentina)
Ever BANEGA (Argentina)
Bojan KRKIC (Spain)
BRENO (Brazil)
Gerardo BRUNA (Argentina)
BUONANOTTE (Argentina)
Macauley CHRISANTUS (Nigeria)
Angel DI MARIA (Argentina)
Franco DI SANTO (Argentina)
Karim BENZEMA (France)
Dumitru COPIL (Romania)
Kermit ERASMUS (South Africa)
FABIO (Brazil)
FABIO COENTRAO (Portugal)
Marauane FELLAINI (Belgium)
GUILHERME (Brazil)
Nour HADHRIA (Tunisia)
Rabul IBRAHIM (Nigeria)
Damian Ismodes (Peru)
Lorenzo DE SILVESTRI (Italy)
KERLON (Brazil)
Toni KROOS (Germany)
LULINHA (Brazil)
Sapol MANI (Togo)
Juan MATA (Spain)
Cristaina NAZARITH (COLOMBIA)
Aaron NIGUEZ (Spain)
Daniel OPARE (Ghana)
Ransford OSEI (Ghana)
Fran MERIDA (Spain)
Nikolay MIHAYLOV (Bulgaria)
Mesut OZIL (Germany)
RENATO AUGUSTO (Brazil)
Micah RICHARDS (England)
Andrea RUSSOTTO (Italy)
Henri SAIVET (France)
ALEXIS SANCHEZ (Chile)
Marek SUCHY (Czech Republic)
Sergio TEJERA (Spain)
Ivan RAKITIC (Croatia)
Abdou TRAORE (Burkina Faso)
Gregory VAN DER WIEL (Holland)
Carlos VELA (Mexico)
Theo WALCOTT (England)

a star in the making

Denilson should be on the list.

Juego de la Okkas wrote:Sadick ADAMS (Ghana)
AISSATI (Holland)
Alexandre PATO (Brazil)
ANDERSON (Brazil)
Gareth BALE (Wales)
Gio DOS SANTOS (Mexico)
Sergio AGUERO (Argentina)
Ever BANEGA (Argentina)
Bojan KRKIC (Spain)
BRENO (Brazil)
Gerardo BRUNA (Argentina)
BUONANOTTE (Argentina)
Macauley CHRISANTUS (Nigeria)
Angel DI MARIA (Argentina)
Franco DI SANTO (Argentina)
Karim BENZEMA (France)
Dumitru COPIL (Romania)
Kermit ERASMUS (South Africa)
FABIO (Brazil)
FABIO COENTRAO (Portugal)
Marauane FELLAINI (Belgium)
GUILHERME (Brazil)
Nour HADHRIA (Tunisia)
Rabul IBRAHIM (Nigeria)
Damian Ismodes (Peru)
Lorenzo DE SILVESTRI (Italy)
KERLON (Brazil)
Toni KROOS (Germany)
LULINHA (Brazil)
Sapol MANI (Togo)
Juan MATA (Spain)
Cristaina NAZARITH (COLOMBIA)
Aaron NIGUEZ (Spain)
Daniel OPARE (Ghana)
Ransford OSEI (Ghana)
Fran MERIDA (Spain)
Nikolay MIHAYLOV (Bulgaria)
Mesut OZIL (Germany)
RENATO AUGUSTO (Brazil)
Micah RICHARDS (England)
Andrea RUSSOTTO (Italy)
Henri SAIVET (France)
ALEXIS SANCHEZ (Chile)
Marek SUCHY (Czech Republic)
Sergio TEJERA (Spain)
Ivan RAKITIC (Croatia)
Abdou TRAORE (Burkina Faso)
Gregory VAN DER WIEL (Holland)
Carlos VELA (Mexico)
Theo WALCOTT (England)

All the one's I've heard of. Out of the 'lesser knowns' I think Alex Sanchez & Banega look extremly talented. Both looked very good at the U20 WC. Thought Coentrao looked very good at the U20 WC too.

Long been a fan of Aissati

There's another Chilean who is supposed to be very good. Marcelo Bielsa saw him play for the Under-21s and promoted him to the seniors (like with Mascherano). He calls him Messi.