Top 25 Young Players in the World

[liechtenstein jim]

Here is the top 25 young Players in the world according to Soccer
Digest Magazine.

Their criteria was players born from 1983 onwards.

1) Wayne Rooney
2) Robinho
3) Arjen Robben
4) Cristiano Ronaldo
5) Carlos Tevez
6) Obafemi Martins
7) Fernando Torres
8) Lionel Messi
9) Valeri Bojinov
10) Jose Antonio Reyes
11) Cesc Fabregas
12) Bastian Schweinsteiger
13) Javier Mascherano
14) Vincent Kompany
15) Diego
16) Robin Van Persie
17) Andres Iniesta
18) Wesley Sneijder
19) Salomon Kalou
20) Diego Tardelli
21) Rio Mavuba
22) Philipp Lahm
23) Daniele De Rossi
24) Emmanuel Adebayor
25) Philippe Senderos

Players that nearly made the list:

Keepers:
Igor Akinfeev
Sebastian Viera
Gianluca Curci

Defenders:
Gael Clichy
Taye Taiwo
Sergio Ramos
Gonzalo Rodriguez
Robert Huth
Per Mertesacker
Giorgio Chiellini
Nigel De Jong

Midfielders:
Jesus Navas
Juanfran
Mourad Meghni
Mathieu Flamini
Jermaine Jenas
Stuart Downing

Strikers:
Lukas Podolski
Carlos Alberto
Vagner Love
Paolo Guerrero
Rafael Van Der Vaart
Mido
Tomas Jun
Ruben Oliviera

And finally the top 5 REALLY young players!
1) Jon Obi Mikel
2) Freddy Adu
3) Johan Volanthen
4) Samir Nasri
5) Quincy Owusu-Abeyie

[Scarface]

That's a good list, but I wonder why Ryan Babel and Ricardo Quaresma are nowhere to be seen? Downing ahead of both of them? :laugh:
Bit surprised van der Vaart and Sergio Ramos weren't included, but good to see 4 Arsenal players there :)

[Magpie4eva]

Good list but never Rooney. That wrong.

[liechtenstein jim]

Babel was on a list of 3 players touted only as possible future stars.

The list was:
Fernado Gago/Midfielder/Boca Juniors

Ryan Babel/Striker/Ajax

Jeremy Menez/Striker/Sochaux

[da_bear]

where's steven taylor

[PES ADDICT 117]

where's steven taylor

He's poo, no offense

[Gary G]

Good list but never Rooney. That wrong.

Why?

He's definitely in the top 3, he may be an arsehole but he is an awesome talent.

I would have placed Messi higher than Robinho, I feel he is a better player, the amount of hype over Robinho hasn't helped him like.

He's poo, no offense

He clearly isn't, obviously doesn't deserve to be on the list, but he has the makings of a top defender.

[Magpie4eva]

Why?

He's definitely in the top 3, he may be an arsehole but he is an awesome talent.

Well hes an arse but like he is over-rated. He isnt excatly the best youngest player but yeah he should be in the top 3 or 5...

I agree about Messi....He should be higher than Robinho

[martin_cranie]

Good to see so many Arsenal players, both on the list or very nearly on it. And Quincy sneaking in on the really young list too. It bodes well, despite current form.

[Magpie4eva]

Quincy shouldnt be on that list. Hes crap

[Gary G]

Jermaine Jenas

:laugh:

[executioner]

Good list but never Rooney. That wrong.
he only turned 20 last monday and he already has 50 carreer goals. nuff said.

[Gary G]

he only turned 20 last monday and he already has 50 carreer goals. nuff said.

It's not just his goalscoring either, he is a very intelligent player, he ahs the ability to be one of the greats.

[Top Gun]

Yeah i think that the list is quite accurate, Rooney should definetly be on the top of the list and also glad that Messi was placed so high up the list.

[Nedy]

Messi in the first place......that is what I think

[Scarface]

Quincy shouldnt be on that list. Hes crap

How often have you seen him play? You obviously have no idea what you're talking about if you believe he's crap, the guy is hugely talented and has the potential to become one of the best attackers in the world, as anyone who has seen him frequently enough will testify. Have you seen Jon Obi Mikel, Johan Volanthen or Samir Nasri play or even heard of them until now? :rolleyes:

[Yi-Long]

Van Der vaart should have been on the list, and certainly higher then Sneijder...
Kalou also should be way higher. He's been tremendous last year, and that was while playing at a very weak Feyenoord.(Imagine how he would have done in a good team)

Also, I can NOT believe PSV's Afellay isn't on the list, or PSV's 17 year old Aissatti, who made his champions league debut against AC Milan last week!

[Jonny2J]

Quincy shouldnt be on that list. Hes crapare you for real? Rooney overrated! Quincy crap... Quincy is dynamite absolutely amazing on the ball, future stare without a doubt

[Yi-Long]

Ow.... and where the hell is AZ's young defender Ron Vlaar? Most promising young dutch defender since... ehmm... very very long...

[Akineye]

Good list but never Rooney. That wrong.

I know I've said this to a barcode before, and it was probably you, but you know absoloutley nothing about football.

Rooney is the best young player in football by a considerable margin too.

Also, that young Sochaux winger Jeremy Menez looks like an incredible talent from what I've seen.

[Yossi]

The way Dean Ashton was playing last season, he should probably be on there. Maybe not in 25, but at least on the 'nearly' list.

[Estill]

Best young players in England are Rooney, Fabregas, Robben and Wright-Phillips IMO.

[gerrard2k4]

Ace list, Rooney i reckon is correctly placed, Can't beleive the lil brazilian Nilmar or Carlos Alberto didnt make it hes scored at the age of 18-19 ? in a champions league final lol!

[Cannon ball]

Park chu-young should be on that "players that nearly made it" list. Bit surprised to see Mido there, he must be too old for that list.

[David P]

sorry guys but i dont really agree with the list if your going to make a list with who you think is the top 25 which is very hard to judge as your talking about the whole world.

as there are some cracking young players who you never even made the almost list:unsure:

I suggest you do some more homework before putting a list up considering it's 25 top players in the world looks like you've added most of europe as in clubs not players.

It's a far too hard one to judge as im sure most of you would agree.
And rooney at no:1 no way . Best players include mentality,etc.
which Rooney has none of hes far too immature to take first place imo.

[Keyser Soze]

sorry guys but i dont really agree with the list if your going to make a list with who you think is the top 25 which is very hard to judge as your talking about the whole world.

Ok, read it again...
He didn't make his own list, he said "according to Soccer Digest Magazine".


And I agree with Akineye, Rooney is the best young player imo. What a player!

[TochaMan!]

Guys, its been sometime i dont post around here, but i couldnt resist after seeing this (crap) list :D What a joke huahauhauha

Even with my boys Tevez, Carlos Alberto and Mascherano(who all play for my Corinthians) in the top or near it and Robinho well positioned, i couldnt disagree more with this list. My reasons:
1) First, as anything that comes out of England about football, its a Premiership biased list. Period.
2) Martins in 6 place?!?! he is good. But not that much.
3) Messi should be AT LEAST higher than Torres, who is overrated, and Tevez(he is a better talent than Tevez). By the way, I would put Torres lower and Podolski higher because I strongly believe that after WC2006 no one will doubt the polish/german is more effective than Torres. (but just my humbling opinion. All Liga lovers can now curse me)
4) Where is Anderson, who is already a Porto player, but still plays in Brasil? If he is not in this Top 25, this is not a worth list. The boy is the real deal. Talking about Porto, Diego should be in a lower spot.
5) And the worst one:
FUCKING DIEGO TARDELLI IN THE TOP 25?!?!? this solely makes this the stupidiest list ive ever seen!!! The guy cant even barely crack the BENCH in São Paulo(his club in Brasil) and THEY SAY HE IS A TOP 25 PLAYER?!?
I know AT LEAST 3 BRASILIAN strikers around his age that are better than him: Rafael Sobis(Internacional, played in the Sub-21 WC in the NEtherlands), Fred(Lyon) and Nilmar(Corinthians, loaned from Lyon). An these are just Brasilian guys!

Enough said. See ya.

[Lugash]

Rooney at the top is right, I've gotta say. Forget young players, he be near the top for best in the world.

And seriously, Jermaine Jenas? JERMAINE FUCKING JENAS?!?!? Did no-one but the Geordie public see his last two seasons at Newcastle? He is serverely overrated, and don't try and give me 'He's good at Spurs, must be Newcastle!!!11 Lololozors roffle haha' cos he will fade, mark my words.