Marcus Rashford and Ousmane Dembélé were part of our first batch of promising players in 2014. Here you can find out how all 290 have got on

In 2014 we set out to select some of the most promising players in the world and follow them for five years. It started as 20 Premier League players (one from each club) and 40 from the rest of the world. The global one was quickly expanded to 50 (2015) and the current 60 (2016 and 2017), meaning this year we have chased updates for 290 players.

It has been a fascinating journey to find out how these extremely talented players have done. Some of them, such as Marcus Rashford and Ousmane Dembélé, have become international stars while others are no longer with a club. Some have been hampered by injuries while others have made it to their club’s first team or been involved in multimillion-pound transfers.

So before we announce our 2018 picks on Wednesday (Premier League) and Thursday (rest of the world) here is your chance to see how all the players have got on (and also, hopefully, appreciate that our design has improved somewhat in the past four years …). Follow the links and explore how each player has progressed by clicking on them once on the interactive.

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2014

Twenty of the best talents at Premier League clubs: An excellent year for the players (and the journalists who picked them) as this crop featured Dominic Solanke and Marcus Rashford as well as Arsenal’s Chris Willock. You can find the names and the player profiles behind the badges (the Premier League one) and the flags (on the world one).

Forty of the best young talents in world football: Youri Tielemans and Dembélé are among the talented players born in 1997 that we selected for this year but, for me, this year will always be remembered for Abdelhak Nouri’s inclusion. The talented Dutch midfielder was set for his international breakthrough in 2017-18 when he suffered cardiac arrhythmia and collapsed on the pitch during a friendly against Werder Bremen in July 2017. Ajax later said that Nouri had suffered permanent and serious brain damage. Earlier this year Abderrahim Nouri said that his brother had been gradually improving since the start of this year and he can now communicate with his family by moving his mouth or eyebrows.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Youri Tielemans has now played more than 150 league games for Anderlecht and Monaco. Photograph: Soccrates Images/Getty Images

2015

Twenty of the best talents at Premier League clubs: The player who stands out here is Trent Alexander-Arnold, who reached the Champions League final with Liverpool last season and played for England at the World Cup, while Marcus McGuane moved from Arsenal to Barcelona in January.

Fifty of the best young talents in world football: It is amazing to think that Christian Pulisic is still only 20. He has played 74 Bundesliga games for Borussia Dortmund and has 21 caps for the United States. He was part of our 2015 picks and there is another BVB player among this crop: Jacob Bruun Larsen. The Dane had struggled with injuries and was loaned to Stuttgart last season, but has started the new campaign like a house on fire and recently scored three goals in three games for the first team. This year we also had “the Colombian Yaya Touré”, Dejan Lovren’s younger brother Davor and Martin Ødegaard.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jacob Bruun Larsen, right, celebrates with Axel Witsel after scoring against Monaco in the Champions League in early October. Photograph: Pixathlon/Rex/Shutterstock

2016

Twenty of the best talents at Premier League clubs: An interesting batch of players with Jadon Sancho the one who has made the most progress, having joined Borussia Dortmund from Manchester City in the summer of 2017. He was immediately given the No 7 shirt and has exploded on to the scene in Germany, earning a call-up to Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the first time last week. Arsenal’s Reiss Nelson has also moved to Germany, while there are still high hopes for Liverpool’s Ben Woodburn and Manchester United’s Angel Gomes.

Sixty of the best young talents in world football: Another year, another prodigy. Gianluigi Donnarumma was one of the players born in 1999 and an absolute certainty on the list, having played for Italy before our list was announced. He has continued to progress and has played more than 120 games for Milan. Other names to look out for here are the Belgian Mile Svilar, who became the youngest goalkeeper to play in the Champions League, Diogo Dalot (now at Manchester United) and Ajax’s Matthijs de Ligt, surely a future Oranje captain.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Matthijs de Ligt, right, captained Ajax to a draw at Bayern Munich in the Champions League this season. Photograph: Soccrates Images/Getty Images

2017

Twenty of the best talents at Premier League clubs: These players, of course, have had only a year to progress but there are still some who are becoming well known. Callum Hudson-Odoi has played in the Premier League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup for Chelsea and was outstanding in pre-season for Maurizio Sarri, while Liverpool’s Curtis Jones made a huge impression when given a chance by Jürgen Klopp on their US tour in the summer. Spurs’ Oliver Skipp was on the bench for the recent Premier League game against Cardiff City.

Sixty of the best young talents in world football: Vinícius Júnior stands out from this year group – players born in 2000 – as he comes with that astonishing €45m price tag after Real Madrid signed him from Flamengo. He missed out on a place in Brazil’s World Cup squad but impressed on loan back at Flamengo before moving to Spain in the summer. The Argentinian Benjamín Garré is impressing at Manchester City, while Bayern Munich made Alphonso Davies the most expensive Canadian ever when they signed him from Vancouver Whitecaps. Yacine Adli, meanwhile, turned down a move to Arsenal and has made his Ligue 1 debut for PSG.