In football, nothing is more valuable than the wonderkid. Managers spent much of their time scouring the ends of the world for these rare gems. And that’s not the end of it, like a rare gem, the wonderkid needs to be polished and nurtured before it is ready for the world stage. In a sense then, he is the human equivalent of the Golden Chocobo.

In this month’s World Soccer magazine, they have compiled the ultimate manager’s buying guide featuring 50 of football’s brightest teenage stars. To make the ranking, a player must be under the age of 20.





Personally, I think it’ll be more interesting to see which one of these so-called “wonderkids” will end up being a majestic flop, like Denilson. I mean, you do remember Denilson, right?

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Rank Name Position Country Age 1 Sadick Adams Striker Ghana 17 2 Ismail Aissati Attacking Midfielder Holland 19 3 Alexandre Pato Striker Brazil 18 4 Anderson Attacking Midfielder Brazil 19 5 Giovani Dos Santos Attacking Midfielder Mexico 18 6 Gareth Bale Left Back Wales 18 7 Sergio Agüero Striker Argentina 19 8 Bojan Krkic Striker Spain 17 9 Breno Defender Brazil 18 10 Gerardo Bruna Attacking Midfielder Argentina 16 11 Angel Di Maria Attacking Midfielder Argentina 12 Diego Buonanotte Attacking Midfielder Argentina 13 Franco Di Santo Striker Argentina 14 Macauley Chrisantus Striker Nigeria 15 Karim Benzema Striker France 16 Dumitru Copil Attacking Midfielder Romania 17 Fabio Left Back Brazil 18 Kermit Erasmus Striker South Africa 19 Fabio Coentrao Left Winger Portugal 20 Marouane Fellaini Midfielder Belgium 21 Guilherme Attacking Midfielder Brazil 22 Damian Ismodes Winger Peru 23 Lorenzo De Silvestri Right Back Italy 24 Nour Hadhria Midfielder Tunisia 25 Rabul Ibrahim Attacking Midfielder Nigeria 26 Kerlon Striker Brazil 27 Toni Kroos Attacking Midfielder Germany 28 Juan Manuel Mata Attacking Midfielder Spain 29 Lulinha Attacking Midfielder Brazil 30 Sapol Mani Midfielder Togo 31 Cristian Nazarith Striker Colombia 32 Ransford Osei Striker Ghana 33 Aaron Niguez Striker Spain 34 Daniel Opare Right Back Ghana 35 Fran Merida Midfielder Spain 36 Nikolay Mihaylov Goalkeeper Bulgaria 37 Mesut Ozil Attacking Midfielder Germany 38 Andrea Russotto Attacking Midfielder Italy 39 Renato Augusto Attacking Midfielder Brazil 40 Henri Saivet Striker France 41 Micah Richards Right Back England 42 Alexis Sanchez Winger Chile 43 Sergio Tejera Attacking Midfielder Spain 44 Marek Suchy Defender Czech Republic 45 Ivan Rakitic Midfielder Croatia 46 Abdou Traore Winger Burkina Faso 47 Carlos Vela Striker Mexico 48 Theo Walcott Striker England 49 Gregory Van Der Wiel Defender Holland 50 Ever Banega Midfielder Argentina

Kenny maintains a blog personal called “The Meditation Chamber“

“Top 50” front image and player headshots by Marco Pantanella