List of best under 21 players in the world- ESPN

World Football
#22

Fair, didn’t know he was doing well this season. Felt like he was one of those young prospects just living on his name for a bit now. Still, top 10 on a list like this for a GK who might not even be the best of the young GKs in the world is too much.

You wake up on the wrong side of the bed today mate? I was literally considering putting (homer pick) next to Martinelli, but figured it went without saying, lol. Achraf I was trying to get in there–I’m from Madrid, remember, I’m quite aware of how well he’s doing, (we’ll see if he can defend though) and always liked him–from like 11) on, but since I wasn’t doing this list nearly as seriously (hence the emojis, and given the impossibility of me having watched loads of all these players, and given the fact that one serious list is enough for a day, and I had already done one), I just kind of kept doing what I’ll do in auto-pilot: pick midfielders/attackers over defenders.

Tbf, the list is done by a Norwegian, formerly sporting director of Monaco. British ESPN has a pretty good cast of participants (Gab Marcotti, Sid Lowe, some stats-leaning guys, etc.), so it’s actually a pretty worthwhile outlet for football, I have to say. It’s easy enough to spot the (few, tbf to them) articles that are pandering to US audiences (they contain at least one of these things: Pulisic, Messi, Ronaldo, FIFA), and above all filter by author.

Everything I’ve read about David for a number of years suggesting he’s quite legit and probably should be firmly placed on my list honestly.

Nah only seen a bit of Soumare when I read about him and did some youtube scouting, haha. Felt like he needed to be in there though. Don’t know about Osimhen, I remember when he first came on the scene when there was that “golden” generation of Nigerians, our very own Nwakali forming part, but I just know he’s been lighting it up at Lille.

lol. I love football, mate. You know what leagues I watch primarily–Spain and England, Champions. From there it’s your one Bundesliga/Serie A match that catches my eye/happens to coincide with a time I can watch football/am hungover. So you know which players on this list I’ve watched more of and which I haven’t. I don’t willingly blind myself to stats because I know they have value and I know that it’s partly an act of arrogance–I know, I used to do it–to ignore them and place too much emphasis on what your eye sees, but that’s another discussion altogether.

#23

I probably did you know mate so my bad if it seemed like I was digging at you.

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#24

Anyways, it’s quite hard to make a list like this, I feel like I could make a strong case for pretty much every one I’ve listed to go as high as 5 o 6, including David and probably someone I’m forgetting not on the list. Hence why I didn’t really want to take up the labor in seriousness, because knowing my compulsiveness I’d spend half my work day on it and likely get into a big semantic discussion about criteria :sweat_smile:

Only thing I can say for sure: Vinicius should not be 4th on that list (nor do I think Donnarumma should be very high, but there with the caveat that I know less). And I like Vinicius, and defended Madrid buying him for what was considered an exorbitant fee for someone of his age and his experience.

EDIT: forgot about Rayan Cherki. He should probably go 4th or maybe even 3rd on this list. Things he’s doing at his age and the talent he has is :flushed:

Also realised how I basically left defenders out, lol. Surely Saliba or Upemacano or some other defender gets on there. Saliba and Martinelli should surely be the two highest ranking Arsenal players, followed by Guendouzi.

#25

He’s made a number of shortlists, notably the Golden Boy. A quick google search also shows that he’s featured on a bunch of “most valuable young player” or “wonderkid” type lists. The fact that a player of this caliber keeps making these lists would indicate to me that the talent pool is weak. Didn’t think that would be a controversial point to make, but I forget you will find literally any reason to disagree with people.

I don’t have the time to be a full-time scout and read about every talented 18 - 20 year old in world football. Journalists and awards organisations seem to rate him consistently though and therefore my one line comment that the talent pool being weak would seem pretty fair to me. Seeing Declan Rice and Greenwood on this particular list also strengthens my belief on this point.

In any event, the implied point was actually that I don’t think Guendouzi is an elite talent. You actually agree with that point which is why I found it funny :+1:

#26

Best keeper in Serie A, one of the best young strikers in the eredivisie that we bought in a nice coup, one of the most talented German wingers.

All sold so we could spunk it all on a £50 mil JLo tribute act, Hank Scorpio and Cristiano Ronaldo’s psychotic evil twin.

Oh, and Lucas Perez

This dumb stupid club.

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#27

I don’t think the talent pool is weak nor do I think a player like Guendouzi making the lists is such a bad thing.

He made the list of 36, which to me is fine. With Guendouzi I think the question is if he can be educated into a 6 or develop more creatively, otherwise he’ll just be a Khedira. If he can be educated into being a 6 I think he can be a top player and if he shows more creativity as an 8 too.

Greenwood is a legit talent from what I’ve seen, what’s the problem there? Two-footed, composed finisher, athletic, technical…he looks a better prospect than Rashford was to me. He’s another player who I think you could make a strong case for higher up the list.

Declan Rice I don’t know, I can’t tell if it’s english media bias, sheen from England’s WC run, or if the fact that all scouts seem to rate him means that he’ll turn into a really nice ball playing defender (because top DM he won’t be).

You forgot future English Balón d’Or winner after being sold from Valencia to Barça, and future CL winner Jeff Reine Adelaide.

#28

Who’s that?

This club could flog Azeez and Saka off to finance Ryan Fraser and I wouldn’t be surprised.

#29

Agree with this.

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#30

Isn’t it? I think you got caught up a bit too much in it being ESPN and the biases you might have to it. The important thing is who did the list.

Looking at it, and considering his requirements (he left people like Cherki and Bellingham out of consideration but did mention them, which is good), and caveats (biasing the list toward attacking players because defenders develop later, and often less highly rated defender prospects are the ones who turn out to be the best), I think it’s a quite good list. I don’t know who I’d take out of it and who you could put in? It would be really hard to take any of those names off. Cuisance, Adli, Gravenberch, Moriba, Agoume and Caqueret are a few names that come to mind, along with my addition (Pedri), or someone like Kamara or Saliba (the former he mentions when explaining why the list is biased towards attackers).

Yunus Musah.

EDIT: looking at the list perhaps the best case you could make to leave off it is Saka, considering that as wingers you could easily choose English or English based wingers like Nelson himself, Madueke or Chong before him, but given the amount he’s played at first team level and given the chance he makes it at LB like Davies it’s fair to have him on.