5 most promising football prodigies in Europe right now
Spotting footballing talent at a young age is vital for any football club, at any level. In some of Europe’s top leagues, it can change the fortunes of a club, if not on the pitch, then on the balance sheet.In the modern era, the game has undergone a lot of changes and the new breed of footballers have adapted and have been trained according to those requirements.Here are five players aged nineteen or under who look set to take the world of football by storm in years to come, if they can keep their heads whilst those around them lose theirs.
#1 Julian Brandt
The 2015/16 season could be a big one for Julian Brandt. The 19-year-old Bayer Leverkusen attacker has all the physical and technical tools to go far in the game, but the next stage of his career will test his mentality and football nous. Brandt has represented his country at youth level from u15s onwards, and he was in the Germany squad for the FIFA U20 World Cup this summer.
On the pitch, he was head and shoulders above most other players at the tournament, both literally and metaphorically. His combination of pace, athleticism, and skill, plus the fact he’s over 6ft tall, means he looks like he should be in the senior national side rather than the U20s. Breaking into Die Mannschaft will be a tough ask, especially given the abundance of talent Germany currently has across the age groups, but if he progresses as expected, then he’ll be impossible to ignore.
Brandt, born in Bremen in Northwestern Germany, played his youth football for local sides SC Borgfeld and FC Oberneuland, before joining Wolfsburg’s academy. He scored 13 goals for Wolfsburg’s youth side as they won the U19 Bundesliga in the 2012/13 season. In January 2014 he signed a professional contract with Bayer Leverkusen, over on the eastern side of Germany, and it wasn’t long before he was making his Bundesliga debut, coming on as a late substitute in Leverkusen’s 2-1 defeat at home to FC Schalke.
Since then, he’s gone on to appear regularly for his club, even though he doesn’t always start games, but it’ll be difficult for his manager, Roger Schmidt, to ignore him in the upcoming season. A right-footed, versatile forward, Brandt’s game is all about making things happen in the final third. He’s a direct runner, using his size and speed to get at opposition defenders, but he’ll also look to cross or play through balls to a main striker.
He has the raw, unfettered talent of a young Cristiano Ronaldo, and whilst any such comparison is obviously ridiculous, he’ll be looking towards the 2015/16 season as one where he adds more goals and assists to his game, as the Portuguese star did during his own development at Manchester United.