Top 50 Most Exciting Teen Footballers (2007)

In football, nothing is more valuable than the wonderkid. Managers spent much of their time scouring the ends of the world for these rare gems. And that’s not the end of it, like a rare gem, the wonderkid needs to be polished and nurtured before it is ready for the world stage. In a sense then, he is the human equivalent of the Golden Chocobo.

In this month’s World Soccer magazine, they have compiled the ultimate manager’s buying guide featuring 50 of football’s brightest teenage stars. To make the ranking, a player must be under the age of 20.

Personally, I think it’ll be more interesting to see which one of these so-called “wonderkids” will end up being a majestic flop, like Denilson. I mean, you do remember Denilson, right?

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Rank
Name
Position Country
Age
1
Sadick Adams, age 17 Sadick Adams Striker Ghana
17
2
Ismail Aissati, age 19 Ismail Aissati Attacking Midfielder Holland
19
3
Alexandre Pato, age 18 Alexandre Pato Striker Brazil
18
4
Anderson Luís de Abreu Oliveira, age 19 Anderson Attacking Midfielder Brazil
19
5
Giovani dos Santos, age 18 Giovani Dos Santos Attacking Midfielder Mexico
18
6
Gareth Bale, age 18 Gareth Bale Left Back Wales
18
7
Sergio Agüero, age 19 Sergio Agüero Striker Argentina
19
8
Bojan Krkić, age 17 Bojan Krkic Striker Spain
17
9
Breno Rodrigues Borges, age 18 Breno Defender Brazil
18
10
Gerardo Bruna, age 16 Gerardo Bruna Attacking Midfielder Argentina
16
11
Angel Di Maria Attacking Midfielder Argentina
12
Diego Buonanotte Attacking Midfielder Argentina
13
Franco Di Santo Striker Argentina
14
Macauley Chrisantus Striker Nigeria
15
Karim Benzema Striker France
16
Dumitru Copil Attacking Midfielder Romania
17
Fabio Left Back Brazil
18
Kermit Erasmus Striker South Africa
19
Fabio Coentrao Left Winger Portugal
20
Marouane Fellaini Midfielder Belgium
21
Guilherme Attacking Midfielder Brazil
22
Damian Ismodes Winger Peru
23
Lorenzo De Silvestri Right Back Italy
24
Nour Hadhria Midfielder Tunisia
25
Rabul Ibrahim Attacking Midfielder Nigeria
26
Kerlon Striker Brazil
27
Toni Kroos Attacking Midfielder Germany
28
Juan Manuel Mata Attacking Midfielder Spain
29
Lulinha Attacking Midfielder Brazil
30
Sapol Mani Midfielder Togo
31
Cristian Nazarith Striker Colombia
32
Ransford Osei Striker Ghana
33
Aaron Niguez Striker Spain
34
Daniel Opare Right Back Ghana
35
Fran Merida Midfielder Spain
36
Nikolay Mihaylov Goalkeeper Bulgaria
37
Mesut Ozil Attacking Midfielder Germany
38
Andrea Russotto Attacking Midfielder Italy
39
Renato Augusto Attacking Midfielder Brazil
40
Henri Saivet Striker France
41
Micah Richards Right Back England
42
Alexis Sanchez Winger Chile
43
Sergio Tejera Attacking Midfielder Spain
44
Marek Suchy Defender Czech Republic
45
Ivan Rakitic Midfielder Croatia
46
Abdou Traore Winger Burkina Faso
47
Carlos Vela Striker Mexico
48
Theo Walcott Striker England
49
Gregory Van Der Wiel Defender Holland
50
Ever Banega Midfielder Argentina

Kenny maintains a blog personal called “The Meditation Chamber

“Top 50” front image and player headshots by Marco Pantanella

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