Ahead of the Game: Identify Child Football Prodigies here

wasn't Fergie's fault he broke his leg tbf

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/claudio-nancufil-the-new-lionel-messi-attracting-interest-from-barcelona-and-the-premier-league-at-the-age-of-eight-8967619.html

Manchester City have won the battle for Brahim Abdelkader Diaz.

The 14-year-old from Malaga has been dubbed ‘the new Messi’ and Sportsmail revealed in October that City were fighting Barcelona for his signature.

City have paid £300,000 up front for Diaz, with the final deal worth £2.4million depending on what he achieves at the club.

Luis Suarez’s agent Pere Guardiola, brother of Pep, has been involved in negotiations about a player who is touted to be worth between £30m-£40m once he develops.

http://imageshack.com/a/img7/8435/fjmz.jpg

Madchester revival combo The Flare Mules

Martin Ødegaard

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_%C3%98degaard

Apparently Celtic are chasing this lad. Already playing and scoring for his club at 15.

Barnsley midfielder and England Under 20 star Paul Digby was one of three players drafted in by England head coach Roy Hodgson today, to train with the senior national squad.

England captain Wayne Rooney was one of the first players to welcome the young trio to the training session.

joe gomez btw

Meanwhile, here's 11-year-old Michael Gyasi, snapped up by Chelsea this week.

― Ismael Klata, Saturday, 16 October 2010 10:45 (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Now at Leicester U15s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y5UrULk29U

His twitter account is fascinating both in its view into a future galacticos head and how junior awesomefest it is.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/ng-interactive/2014/oct/13/next-generation-2014-20-of-the-best-talents-at-premier-league-clubs

graun doing a 7-up type thing

lol at newcastle's peterborough-born pirlo wannabe "stefan broccoli"

ha im glad someone linked to that

seen a bit of dominic solanke and he does look the real deal imo

other than willock vaguely i havent heard of any of the rest

the only one i was aware of previously is the chelsea one solanke
its notable how among the cast of gawky adolescents, he already looks like an elite football player
no idea whether he is or not just his photo has that air of mesomorphic composure that makes you want to pay him 18k a week even before he has learnt to drive

matty hinchlcliffe the 17 yr old 'commanding centre half' (a type more specific than mere 'central defenders') with the receding hairline is some sort of realness infanta going on the full queen

yes i enjoyed him and his tiny round head on massive collar

solanke is as you describe, allstar all american prepack perfect jock kinda vibe (lol only a month older than utd's 9-yo rashford) but where usually the brit version will eventually translate that into physical simpleton (spurs' caulkeresque carter-vickers probably awaits this fate) he seemed uncallow and professionally adroit, unblinkingly first team ready

just geography i suppose but still so many of these kids are appealingly cliche wrt their parent clubs. "may initially be back on the flank a la wilfiried zaha and sean scannell" was probably a bit too cruel on the palace lad. dunno where we found our big phil jonesy side of ham mind

"is growing in stature under the tutelage of (...) Paul Furlong"

royston drenthe was always a bit kicknrush even when he won the best player award at the 2007 european championships but there is no way he should be playing for sheffield wednesday at 27, he was already a solid la liga player as a kid

was this prompted by his 101 sunday league skillz video yday

there is no way he should be playing for sheffield wednesday at 27

when he ran past our whole team to score at the valley a few months back it was slightly irritating for exactly this reason

Drenthe is the archetypal Dutch young gun that went abroad too soon imho. Went to Madrid, couldnae hack it, then played everywhere and nowhere (including Alania Vladikavkaz, and saying that with no disrespect). Embarrassing pleas wanting to join Feyenoord again every other year. I'm feeling for the guy.

His trick yday was nice though.

Indy Boonen

hey Coulibaly plays in Scotland now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFvN5IFBFLk

you know who else plays for Kilmarnock? George "another Wayne Rooney or Paul Gascoigne" Green.

Yeah, that was amazing.

Unrelated but nice to see that delightful Georgian pixie child Jano Ananidze seems to have come good this season too.

Doubly great as it spurred Celtic on to score six goals in reply.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/oct/24/alessando-cupini-roma-us-soccer-sensation-social-media

The 10-year-old US soccer sensation and social media star snapped up by Roma
Alessandro Cupini has more than 40,000 followers on Instagram and his own pitch in his basement in Kansas City which he will soon be leaving to join the Serie A club, getting around Fifa’s youth regulations thanks to dual-citizenship

Baniyas[edit]
Drenthe joined UAE Pro League side Baniyas Club in September 2015.[34] He was released in July 2016.[35]

Retirement[edit]
Unable to find a club, Drenthe has since then announced that he is 'no longer a footballer', and 'fed up with all the stuff in the football world', dedicating himself to rap instead.[36]

Youssoufa Moukoka. Twelve years old, playing with the U-17's, racking in the goals.

This should have been Pandemic's call tbh goddamnit

Zlatan Sehovic, a 17 year old left-back, made his first team debut for Partizan in a Europa league qualifier tonight, contributing an assist. Apparently one to watch for the future.

Aminu Mohammed, who has looked exceptional in youth competitions and in the Ghanaian league, is going to be playing for Breda (on loan from Man City, obviously) this season. Could be worth looking out for.

"Youth team striker Raheem Sterling could become Liverpool's youngest first team player should he feature against Sparta Prague on Thursday.
Sterling, who turned 16 in December and is on half-term holidays from school..."

Hadn't heard of this lad before, I reckon he qualifies as a child prodigy for another day at least.

― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 16 February 2011 12:13 (seven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

found out klata

found out

Dejan Joveljić, 18 year old striker for Crvena Zvezda looks no bad

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5979783/Bayern-Munich-talks-15m-Vancouver-Whitecaps-teenager-Alphonso-Davies.html

Cracking 17 year old Canadian winger being eyed by Bayern Munich, probably going to break the record for a signing rom the MLS

Alphonso Davies to Bayern Munich is a done deal. Fee is around 13 million euros with substantial add ons that could make the entire package worth a record https://twitter.com/KristianJack/status/10217936728940011520 million. Davies will remain with the Whitecaps for the rest of the season.

— Kristian Jack (@KristianJack) July 24, 2018

I know its only pre-season friendlies but I've been impressed by 18 year old English kid Jadon Sancho for Dortmund

ah cmon mike that fella has been in the papers 2 years!

the prodigy that will never be tarnished by time

― ilxinho (nakhchivan), Saturday, 16 October 2010 00:29 (eight years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

at some stage galway advertiser editor declan varley has outed himself as the culprit here

Anssumane Fati, 16, starting for Barca against Valencia tonight.

And scores after two minutes.

Too old, at 19, to be a proper prodigy but Alf Inge Haaland’s son Erling has just scored a hat trick in the first half of his CL debut - taking his total for the season to 17 goals in 9 games.

some 16 year old scored the winner at the valley for brum the other day but it was a tap-in cos we forgot how to defend so prodigy status is on hold idk

Tap in's still - literally - miles away from kicking a ball into a skip from quite far away. Supposed prodigy cancelled.

Ya ex-Spurs boy and English player Madueke (17) bagged another two goals for PSV today.

Musah (17-y-o, ex-Arsenal) has just scored his first goal for Valencia too.

^^^and accepted a call-up from the US apparently

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-10116025/Arsenal-sign-FIVE-YEAR-OLD-nursery-dubbed-little-Messi.html

In April 2020, it was reported that Feruz had given up football to set up a company selling designer caps.

Tempted to wiki every single prodigy mentioned in this thread, but could be a long and depressing task.