Ranking the 10 Best Teenage Footballers in the World Right Now

Are you tired of the latest transfer rumors? Interested in hearing about a new crop of faces, ready and waiting to burst onto the mainstream football scene? Perhaps you would simply like to learn more about the talents of tomorrow.

Well, this is the slideshow for you.

Here we identify and examine 10 of the best up-and-coming young footballers who can not yet claim that they are not teenagers. Do not be surprised if they are carving your team to shreds in a few years.

10: Souleymane Coulibaly

Coulibaly makes the list more for the potential he has shown than for what he has actually accomplished thus far in his short career.

Tottenham Hotspur obviously saw something exceptional in the youngster, signing him at the age of 16 after a Golden Boot performance in the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2011.

Coulibaly has scored 10 goals in seven appearances for the Ivory Coast at that level, and though he has yet to play for Spurs in a competitive fixture, he seems a player of real quality.

9: Gerard Deulofeu

Barcelona's corps of forwards includes such obscure names as Alexis Sanchez, Pedro, some chap named Lionel Messi and, now, Neymar.

Yet Gerard Deulofeu has managed to make his first-team debut for the Blaugrana, and he has signed a new contract with Catalan club that locks him up until 2017.

Deulofeu has scored wherever he has played. His 27 goals in 68 League appearances for Barcelona B and three in seven for Spain's U-21 side indicate that significant potential exists.

8: Serge Gnabry

Arsene Wenger's notorious eye for young talent spotted a 15-year-old Gnabry playing in VfB Stuttgart's youth system way back in 2010. Arsenal snapped the German up for a nifty £100,000, which already looks to be quite a steal.

Gnabry—which is pronounced as it is spelled—has already played in the Premier League for the Gunners, but has hitherto impressed in Arsenal's youth setup.

His best goals have been quite stunning, and he was Arsenal's star player in their Next-Gen Series run this past season.

7: Viktor Fischer

Only the very best talents in Ajax's famed youth system ever sniff the first team, but Viktor Fischer has already established himself as a lethal left winger for both club and country.

Fischer has not yet been 19 years old for a month, and he was just 18 for the entirety of the 2012-13 Eredivisie season. Yet he has already accumulated 10 goals in just 23 league games and earned two caps for Denmark.

Though he plays in a different position, he looks poised to follow the same path as teammate Christian Eriksen.

6: M'Baye Niang

What sorts of players make their professional debuts in a top-flight league at the age of 16? Those whose youth coaches say that they have never seen a comparable player before at their club.

Such is M'Baye Niang's vast potential and unnatural physical prowess for his age that AC Milan snapped him up last summer, prior to his 18th birthday.

Despite the arrival of Mario Balotelli, who is a similar sort of physical striker, in January, Niang has appeared 24 times for the Rossoneri in Serie A and is tied to Milan until 2017.

5: Luke Shaw

Shaw is 17 years old, and established himself as a first-team regular for Southampton from the beginning of last season.

Think about that: A young man who is 22 months away from the age of majority was, and still is, a sure selection for a Premier League side.

The left back appeared more than two dozen times for Southampton in the league last season, and has unsurprisingly been a magnet for speculation about a move to the likes of Arsenal or Chelsea, as this report from the Daily Mail suggests.

4: Raheem Sterling

Immediately upon Brendan Rogers' takeover as manager of Liverpool prior to last season, Raheem Sterling was catapulted into the first-team lineup.

This was partly done out of necessity, as the Reds possessed a dearth of attacking options, and a prodigious young talent was at their disposal. But Sterling was also impossible to drop.

Twenty-five Premier League appearances for a man who began the season as a 17-year-old is rather extraordinary, especially at a club like Liverpool that is not starved for resources. Sterling even managed to earn himself a senior cap for England.

Queens Park Rangers will rue the day they sold their best talent to Liverpool for the paltry sum of £600,000. Rogers can thank erstwhile manager Rafa Benitez for the gift.

3: Jetro Willems

Jetro Willems first burst onto the international stage at Euro 2012, when, barely 18 years old, he became the youngest player ever to appear in the competition.

While the Netherlands would dramatically crash and burn in Poland and Ukraine, Willems was a bright spot on the left side of defense, frequently getting forward to good effect.

Now 19, his 65 appearances for PSV Eindhoven and eight senior caps for the Oranje will likely propel him toward even more prominence in the near future.

2: Julian Draxler

Here is what young Schalke star Julian Draxler has achieved before the age of 20: He wears No. 10 for his club, is given much of the creative responsibility, has a contract that runs until 2018 and was pushed out of Germany's U-21 team so quickly that he now has six caps for the senior side.

Not bad.

Draxler was the fourth-youngest player to ever appear in the Bundesliga when he debuted at just over 17 years old in 2011, according to Goal.com.

Coincidentally, Goal.com is also reporting that Draxler is not very far away from a transfer to Real Madrid.

1: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

What can't "The Ox" do?

Oxlade-Chamberlain possesses blistering pace, but marries that raw skill with the ability to dribble his way past quick opponents and pick a pass through the defense.

He is a very direct sort of player and has been earmarked for a midfield role by Arsene Wenger for quite a while. This extremely rare dynamism has earned the teen 41 Premier League appearances for Arsenal in two seasons, and a truly remarkable 12 senior caps for England.

A fee that could rise to £15 million was a tremendous outlay for a then-17-year-old, but Oxlade-Chamberlain leaves less doubt every time he steps onto the pitch that Arsenal spent their money extremely wisely.

Follow @charliemelman