Who Is Youri Tielemans and What Would He Bring to Real Madrid?

Real Madrid have made a habit recently of targeting and snapping up some of the game's hottest teenage talents, and reports suggest the club intends to continue doing so. 

Indeed, after signing the likes of Martin Odegaard, Marco Asensio and Jesus Vallejo in recent transfer windows, Madrid are now interested in Anderlecht's 18-year-old midfielder Youri Tielemans, according to Marca (h/t Goal). 

Since making his first-team debut with the Belgian outfit at just 16 years of age in 2013 after coming through the club's academy, Tielemans has become a regular at the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium, and is considered to be among the game's most promising young players. 

In October 2013, he became the youngest ever Belgian to compete in the UEFA Champions League, and since, along with a burgeoning domestic career—two years running he's been voted as Belgium's Young Footballer of the Year—has made more than 20 appearances in European competition across the Champions League and Europa League. 

In January, Tielemans came in at No. 1 in Goal's rankings of the best 50 then-under-18 players in the world. Here at Bleacher Report in October, he came in at No. 3 in its rankings of the top 100 youth prospects in Europe. 

Countless clubs have been linked to him.

The world is taking notice.  

Style and Strengths

Tielemans looks to be a very complete and versatile midfielder in the making, having already performed a number of roles in his short senior career thus far.

Possessing a wonderful passing range, the ability to hit defence-splitting balls, great vision, physical strength and spatial awareness, the teenager is primarily considered to be a central or deep-lying midfielder, but he has shown a capacity to play effectively further forward at both youth level and early in his senior career, according to UEFA.com. 

It's this rounded development that has made the Belgian such an exciting prospect. With increased positional discipline that will come with experience, he looks capable of playing as an elite holding option—one who packs the ability to do damage from deep if given time and space to pick his passes.

His strength on the ball, athleticism and aggressive instincts suggest he could also be moulded into a roaming box-to-box type. The goalscoring sort. 

Indeed, even while being used in a number of roles, Tielemans has bagged 13 goals across the last two seasons for Anderlecht in all competitions, per Soccerway. Around the penalty area, he can be potent with forceful shooting, strong set-piece skills and well-timed runs.

As such, he's drawn comparisons with Chelsea great Frank Lampard from onlookers, including Bleacher Report's Sam Tighe. 

It's no surprise, then, that he's being linked with clubs like Real Madrid and is expected to become a future pillar of the Belgium national side. 

Potential Fit at Real Madrid

Though predicting where teenage talents will land among the world's top clubs is extremely difficult, Real Madrid fans should be encouraged by the type of player the club is being linked with in Tielemans.

After the swoops for Odegaard and Asensio, the latter shining this season on loan at Espanyol, the last thing Madrid needed to do was target another technical playmaker suited to the No. 10 role. Instead, if the pursuit for high-profile teenagers is going to continue, players of a different essence type to be the priority, and Tielemans is one of those.

Though he's hardly imposing in stature in the way, say, Paul Pogba is—the young Belgian is only 5'7"—the Anderlecht star has a slightly more physical, powerful edge to his game and is suited to a position where Real Madrid aren't so heavily stacked at senior level. In fact, currently, Casemiro and Toni Kroos would theoretically be Tielemans' only positional competitors in the first team. 

If Tielemans were to be signed in the coming summer, though—assuming Madrid aren't affected by the currently suspended transfer ban—he would almost certainly go out on loan like Asensio has this season, given that Madrid would be eager to see him further develop elsewhere in the Spanish top flight. 

Only after that would he be likely to be in consideration for playing time at the Bernabeu. 

Quotes

• Team-mate Fabrice N'Sakala, per Goal: "He has a capacity to organise and to see the play. He's a No. 8 who can dictate the flow of the game and who has a shot that allows him to score some great goals. He has everything a modern midfielder should have. He's complete."

• Former Anderlecht player Par Zetterberg, per UEFA.com: "Tielemans is a phenomenon. There are not many players better than him."

• Agent Christophe Henrotay, per Goal: "At the end of the season he will be ready to take up a new challenge at another club. This will be part of the formula that allows him to take his place in the national side."