One of the most exciting things in football is looking to the future. And right now that’s a more exciting activity than ever.
As the era of Ronaldo and Messi gradually comes to a close, we’re seeing youngsters like Kylian Mbappe, Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland take centre stage.
A golden era of football again awaits on the horizon and as we wait for these stars to reach their potential the CIES Football Observatory has worked out the official 25 most promising players born in the 2000s based on capital experience.
Dominating the top of the list is a host of Bundesliga prodigies. Former Manchester City player Jadon Sancho tops the list followed by Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies and his teammate Erling Haaland in third place.
You might argue that Haaland belongs top of the list but this is a list calculated on the greatest capital experience garnered by the youngsters. This uses minutes played weighted with the quality of the leagues they’ve played in – so the better the league the higher the ‘capital experience.’
Seven UK based players make the list including Swansea’s Marc Guehi, Leicester’s Wesley Fofana and Norwich’s Max Aarons. There’s also a pair of Manchester City youngsters near the top of the list. Ferran Torres sits in 8th placed just one spot behind England international Phil Foden.
Remarkably, despite the superb season Foden is having he’s not the Premier League’s best youngster according to the list. That honour belongs to Wolves’ Pedro Neto. The starlet who turns 21 today has been outstanding this season more than replacing the departed Diogo Jota. So far this campaign he’s managed an impressive 5 goals and 5 assists.
Joining him in the list is a surprising Leeds United star too.
Goalkeeper Illan Meslier stands in 13th place. He too has had a superb campaign despite conceding 2 goals last night against West Ham. The always improving keeper has superbly taken to the Premier League and has garnered 8 clean sheets in the league this season on the back of helping Leeds United to promotion last season.
In truth he’s one of many young stars we’re lucky to have in England at the moment as the future creeps ever closer.
Here’s the full list:
25. Marash Kumbulla (AS Roma)
24. Mitchel Bakker (Paris Saint-Germain)
23. Marc Guehi (Swansea City)
22. Gustavo Assuncao (Famalicao FC)
21. Dusan Vlahovic (Fiorentina)
20. Moise Kean (Paris Saint-Germain)
19. Sandro Tonali (AC Milan)
18. Abner Vinicius (CA Paranaense)
17. Aurelien Tchouameni (AS Monaco)
16. Sebastian Walukiewicz (Cagliari)
15. Wesley Fofana (Leicester City)
14. Maxence Lacroix (Wolfsburg)
13. Illan Meslier (Leeds United)
12. Max Aarons (Norwich City)
11. Sergino Dest (Barcelona)
10. Jonathan David (Lille)
9. Dejan Kulusevski (Juventus)
8. Ferran Torres (Manchester City)
7. Phil Foden (Manchester City)
6. Pedro Neto (Wolves)
5. Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid)
4. Sven Botman (Lille)
3. Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund)
2. Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich)
1. Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund)
