Europe's Most Exciting Young Football Talent

Daniel Stacey by Correspondent Written on March 04, 2008
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Thought I would just write about some of the exciting young talent to look out for in the next few years!

Probably the best young player in Europe right now is Sergio Aguero of Athletico Madrid. Short but very skillful, this young forward has already won the U-19 World Cup twice, picking up the Top Scorer and Player of the Tournament last year as Argentina stormed to victory. Personally I think this kid is the real deal.

Another player I am hoping to see more of this year is Yoann Gourcuff, the young French midfielder currently at Milan. He is an intelligent, passing midfielder with a calm and mature air about him. A young Zidane in the making I'm hoping!

A couple of young goalkeepers who have caught my eye are Idriss Kameni from Cameroon and the young Russian, Igor Akinfeyev.

Kameni is a bouncy, energetic African goalkeeper with great reflexes, whilst Akinfeyev is the polar opposite with a coolness of character and that Russian menace that make him so hard to beat. Akinfeev collected four consecutive clean sheets in the Champions League, which, at the age of 21 is no mean feat! 

Fred from Lyon looks to be improving all the time. Whilst everyone knows about Messi, but I think we all forget he is still only 20 years old!

There was a lot of fuss in recent years over the Dutch midfielder Raphael Van de Vaart, but surely his talent deserves better than to single handedly drag lowly Hamburg through yet another season.

After the furor over American teen-sensation Fredy Adu died down a few years ago, Freddy was allowed to quietly progress at D.C United and earned himself a contract at Benfica last year—not before Manchester United had him on trial, but turned him down.

I couldn't write a piece on exciting young footballers without mentioning a few South American prospects.

Kerlon is the one who springs to mind, what with his head juggling and general dribbling craziness. Fernando Gago (Real Madrid), Mattias Fernandez (Villareal), and Fernando Cavenaghi of Bordeaux all have bright futures ahead of them.

I'm sure I have missed plenty of good young players, but if anyone wants to add their own recommendations for the coming years then you're very welcome to. Thank you for reading.

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written on March 04, 2008 Sports

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