Top 50 Teens In The World…

By: chris | November 30th, 2007

…according to World Soccer. Well, “Most Exciting”, which I don’t get with a goalkeeper and some defenders on the list. So most exciting prospects for the future? Which means the top prospects? We’ll run with that. Anytime one of these lists comes out the reaction is the same: Everybody gets all up in arms about the placement/omissions/admissions, overanalyzes the selections, then proceeds to rip the list/publisher for being moronic and worth nothing, then going back into said rage. So let’s get this over with: This list means absolutely jack shit, but it’s fun to look at and get in a hissy over. Which is exactly what we’re going to do. So right after the little hop, the Top 50.

Now, before everybody gets all upset, this list is in no particular order, though I’m sure it’s pretty easy to pick out the top 5 or 10. So, without further ado:

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

From World Soccer, via SoccerLens.

Some observations:

• World Soccer is a British publication. No, I’m not saying the British media is always biased (sometimes, not always), I’m just saying it’s complete crap.

• Zero Americans on that list. Probably justified. (Rossi is 20 for those still harboring delusional dreams.)

• South America is doing alright for the future, yeah? (Or maybe they just sent scouts to South America. Both entirely possible.)

• If you’re going to throw Di Silvestri on that list from the boot, then ahead of him absolutely has to be Fernando Forestieri and Stefano Okaka Chuka. Russotto, on the other hand, is quite legit.

• Many of these kids will turn out to be flops, so if your team has one, I’d wouldn’t get too excited.

• Ghana, after being the surprise of last year’s World Cup, appears to have a bright future ahead with 3 players on this team. While some of the European big boys – namely: England, France, Italy, Germany, Croatia, Czech Republic, Netherlands and Portugal – only have one or two.

• One of these years Spain is going to stop getting bounced before/during the quarter finals. Seriously. (Alright, maybe not.)

• I hear Nicklas Bendtner ain’t bad…..

Obviously, ridiculous. Enjoy.

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Category: World Football

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Me

Nor are they good
b-man

KFA, De Ridder and Carson arent teens
KFA

Where is Royston Drenthe and Daniel De Ridder? Can't Forget those Dutch. Also, Scott Carson has to make the list, i mean, he has become a starter after the Under 21 Cup this year. Not much love to the keepers!
Laurie

Oh. Right. At about noon on Fridays I lose the ability to read.
Martha

Don't worry, Laurie, the list isn't ranked, so you can pretend he's #1 in the hearts of World Soccer.
Laurie

I'm thrilled that my personal favorite player, Karim Benzema, doesn't turn twenty for another couple of weeks and thus qualifies for this list. However, the fact that he comes in only at number 15 means the list is total shite.

(And by "personal favorite," I am, of course, speaking purely maternally. Just for the record.)
Nuno

Strange to see Coentrão and not Adu in the list. Adu is quietly entering the Benfica squad and could be a regular first team option in a year or two, while Coentrão has wasted his chances to show some service and a loan transfer seems likely.
Sven

I feel completely mislead by your title of 'Top 50 Teens in the World'...
Ian

Yeah, even if the British press couldn't accept MLS experience as being particularly meaningful, Adu's good start at Benfica and dominance in the U20 World Cup seem to make him a pretty solid candidate for this list.
TexasBoy

Freddy Adu and Jozy Altidore definitely should be sniffing around on this list somewhere
chris

They can dream, right?

Thanks.
bluemeanies

Actually no Americans after Freddy and Jozy were both excellent at the U-20 WC is puzzling, I would have expected at least one of those two on the list if not both.

And Barcelona is not a national team. Dos Santos plays for Mexico.