Ranking the Top 6 Teenagers to Have Played for Atletico Madrid Since 2000
Your teenage years are always ones to savour, right? Especially if you’re playing football in the first team at one of the biggest clubs in the world.
Like many clubs, Atletico Madrid have had their teenage starlets over the years, but who have been the best young players to pull on the famous red-and-white shirt this century?
Here are six to have done so with such great distinction that they’re still fondly remembered to this day.
Note: This list only takes into account what the players achieved at Atletico Madrid while still in their teenage years. Anything achieved once they turned 20 years old, either at Atletico or at other clubs, has not been included here.
6. Eduardo Salvio
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A signing from Argentinian club Lanus in early 2010, winger Eduardo Salvio didn’t have much time to make a big impact in his teenage years as he just had a few months to go until he turned 20.
However, he wasted no time and became an important member of the squad which would reach the Europa League final and scored his first two goals for the club in a Liga victory over Tenerife.
Two months before turning 20, he was named in the squad for the Europa League final against Fulham in Hamburg, coming on as a 78th-minute substitute before the match went to extra-time, where Diego Forlan’s second strike of the match four minutes from the end secured glory for Atletico.
5. Koke
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One of the first names on manager Diego Simeone’s teamsheet these days and a player upon whom so much of Atletico’s game relies on, midfielder Koke also made an impact in his teenage years.
After coming through the youth system and playing for the B team, he made his first-team debut at the age of 17 in September 2009, before dropping in and out of the side as he acted as support for the more experienced players around him.
His breakthrough campaign came the following season when he managed 19 appearances in all competitions, scoring goals against Sevilla and Espanyol.
By the time he left his teenage years in January 2012, he was a mainstay of the team which would go on to lift the Europa League that season.
4. David De Gea
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Sergio Asenjo was Atletico’s headline goalkeeper signing before the 2009/10 season, with the new arrival from Valladolid expected to be keeping goal for the club for much of the next decade.
However, a less-than-stellar start plus some injuries allowed the even younger David de Gea to take over from his team-mate between the posts. It didn’t take long for the teenager to earn the trust of new manager Quique Sanchez Flores, who fielded him for much of the second half of the season, including in the Europa League final victory over Fulham.
De Gea was still just 19 at the beginning of the following campaign, when his penalty save from Diego Milito helped contribute to Atletico’s 2-0 UEFA Super Cup final victory over Inter Milan.
3. Thibaut Courtois
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After De Gea left for Manchester United in the summer of 2011, Atletico decided to replace him with another young goalkeeper, and they moved for Thibaut Courtois, who had just turned 19 and had signed for Chelsea from Genk weeks earlier.
Tall and almost impossibly flexible, the Belgian echoed a lot of De Gea’s qualities, and he was immediately installed as Gregorio Manzano’s No. 1 for the new season, again thwarting the luckless Asenjo’s chances.
An up-and-down (or rather down-and-up) Atletico season featured Manzano being sacked and replaced by Diego Simeone, who took the side to the Europa League final against Athletic Club Bilbao in Bucharest, where Courtois kept a clean sheet in the 3-0 win.
He turned 20 two days later.
2. Sergio Aguero
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Eyebrows may have been raised when Atletico Madrid decided to break their transfer record for a then-17-year-old in May 2006, but Sergio Aguero quickly set about proving that they were right to do so.
Having turned 18 before the 2006/07 season, the young Argentinian found himself gradually introduced to first-team life by manager Javier Aguirre, and that experience was to prove vital in the summer of 2007 when Fernando Torres was sold to Liverpool and Aguero was suddenly cast as the main man alongside summer arrival Diego Forlan.
Aged 19, he finished the 2007/08 campaign as the third-highest goalscorer in La Liga behind Mallorca’s Dani Guiza and Sevilla’s Luis Fabiano thanks to 19 league goals (and 27 in all competitions), strikes which helped Atletico to a fourth-place finish and Champions League football.
1. Fernando Torres
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It had to be, didn’t it? Atletico have had some excellent teenagers over the years, but none are quite as revered as Fernando Torres, who now finds himself back at his boyhood club 15 years after making his debut.
Torres signed a professional contract at the Vicente Calderon Stadium aged 15 and was playing in the first team at the age of 17, scoring in his second appearance as the side tried to escape the Segunda Division.
Promotion would soon follow, though, and Torres became a vital member of the side despite his tender years, and he was named club captain at the age of 19 halfway through his second season in La Liga—two campaigns in which he would score 35 goals in total.
By the time he exited his teenage years at the tail end of the 2003/04 season, his legend was already secure with the Atletico supporters, who still worship him as he continues to be an impressive presence in Simeone’s squad.
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