#GenerationNext is our regular feature on Just Football in which we profile the best up-and-coming young talents around the world that you need to know about. In the latest edition we gave you the skinny on PSG new boy and Argentine whizzkid Giovani Lo Celso. Next up we head to Ukraine to look at one of the nation’s outstanding young talents, glimpses of which we saw at Euro 2016…

by David Sansun

Oleksandr Zinchenko is a name that has come to prominence in Western Europe over the last few months, after several rumours emerged linking the 19-year-old with a move to some of Europe’s biggest clubs, including Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City. After weeks of speculation, on Monday a deal for the youngster to join Pep Guardiola’s new club was finally announced.

But for those unfamiliar with the Russian Premier League, Zinchenko will be a player most fans of these sides will never have seen.

Manchester City are pleased to announce the transfer of Ukrainian midfielder Oleksandr Zinchenko from FC Ufa. pic.twitter.com/9r2T0a0a0w — Manchester City (@ManCity) July 4, 2016

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Name: Oleksandr Zinchenko

Date of Birth: December 15th 1996

Age: 19

Position: Attacking Midfield

Nationality: Ukrainian

Who is Oleksandr Zinchenko?

Ukraine’s youngest ever goalscorer has had a strange start to his short career. Zinchenko, like most of Ukraine’s top talents, came through the ranks at Shakhtar Donetsk, joining the club as a 13-year-old.

He quickly established himself as a key figure in the youth team, but at 17 a rift appeared between him and some of the coaching staff, and he cancelled his contract with the club – something Shakhtar have challenged ever since.

In the summer of 2014 Zinchenko appeared at Rubin Kazan and trialled with the club. The transfer and registration window, however, closed before Rubin were able to sign him, and so he continued to train with Rubin until the following window.

During this period, other clubs in Russia took notice, and a tempting offer came in from FC Ufa, a newly promoted side at the time and one of the RPL’s smallest ever clubs. The offer was for more money, and promised more playing time, while Rubin planned to develop him in their reserve team to begin with.

Being the ambitious person he is, Zinchenko chose Ufa, the team best known in Western Europe for being ex-Arsenal player Emmanuel Frimpong’s side for two years between 2014 and 2016.

Zinchenko experienced a slow start to his Ufa career and he was broken into the team slowly, playing just seven times between joining and the end of the season.

Last season, however, was Zinchenko’s big break. Establishing himself over the summer, he made 24 appearances for Ufa over the 2015/16 season, catching the eye with his excellent set piece delivery and particularly confident displays against Zenit and Rostov.

Playing Style

Zinchenko has been developed at Ufa in a way which will help his career in the long run, as he has been exposed to a number of positions.

Predominantly an attacking midfielder, and strongest playing on the right of an attacking midfield trio, where he can cut inside on his wand of a left foot, Zinchenko is also comfortable playing in the centre of midfield.

Due to injuries in the Ufa defence last season, also has exposure of playing at left back, or as the wide player in a team using three centre-backs, due to Ufa’s five-man defence tactics.

His attacking mentality means that he was often caught out of position there, though, and rumours that Borussia Dortmund were eyeing him up as a long term left back were almost certainly fabricated by someone who had never seen him play.

Likened to Kevin De Bruyne by some outlets, his playing style is in reality, nothing like this, and in the wider scheme he is actually more similar another Manchester City player in David Silva. A very one-footed player who will go out of his way to avoid using his right foot, Zinchenko is not a goalscorer, but a dribbler, creator and provider.

He has wonderful close control, and is able to jink his way through tackles with ease, and his terrific left foot means his delivery from dead ball and open play is one of the best in the Russian Premier League. An assist he provided against Kuban Krasnodar last season perfectly highlights all of these qualities and is a glimpse of what can be expected on a regular basis.

Zinchenko further announced himself to the wider world at EURO 2016 with cameos against Germany and Northern Ireland, followed up with an eye-catching performance against Poland, where he was praised as one of Ukraine’s best players; a high point in a disappointing tournament for a side eliminated at the group stage with three losses.

What the experts say

Obviously a player as talented as Zinchenko doesn’t go unnoticed, and the talented teenager has drawn praise from some of Ukraine’s biggest names.

Upon his call-up to the EURO 2016 squad, national team assistant coach and Ukraine’s all-time top goal scorer Andriy Shevchenko said:

“It’s evident that Zinchenko is a talented boy, he now has to take his chance.”

Meanwhile, fellow Ukrainian talent Viktor Kovalenko was full of praise for his former club mate when interviewed at the EUROs:

“Zinchenko has always worked very hard. He thinks about everything in advance. Sasha has always wanted to play like Barcelona and Arsenal. Actually, his strengths are much like the players of Barcelona and Arsenal.”

In May, Zinchenko achieved possibly the highest peak in his short career so far, when he broke the record for Ukraine’s youngest ever goal scorer in their 4-3 win over Romania, previously held by the aforementioned Shevchenko. After the game, Ukraine’s head coach Mikhail Fomenko said:

“Today’s game showed that we were correct to call up Zinchenko. He clearly increases the competition for a place in the first team.”

What next for Zinchenko at City?

For his national team aspirations it was clear the starlet needed to leave Russia, as Ukrainian officials neglected to call up any of the Russian-based Ukrainians for the national team on two occasions this year due to the political tensions between the nations. Moving to Manchester City under Pep Guardiola will allow him to do this.

The 19-year-old was actually left out of the initial Ukraine squad for EURO 2016, but he, along with Bogdan Butko, received a late call up. Both appear to have told Ukrainian officials they would leave Russia. Butko was only on loan to Amkar Perm from Shakhtar Donetsk, and so was returning to Russia this summer anyway, and Zinchenko appears to be on the move shortly.

At City it is likely Zinchenko will be loaned out straight away. The Manchester Evening News suggest that Dutch side PSV Eindhoven would be a possible destination in that case.

This is widely accepted to be a good move. While the Eredivisie and Russian League are probably on a similar par in terms of quality, Zinchenko will be regularly training and playing with players of a much higher calibre than his current Ufa teammates, something which will only help him to improve.

There is also the added bonus of European football, with PSV wining the Eredivisie last season and earning Champions League qualification, a competition which every European player dreams of playing in.

Early rumours suggest that the fee for the 19-year-old would be in the range for €5m, which in these days of ridiculous transfer fees seems like a very low risk investment for a player who is clearly supremely talented.

Either way, the next two to three years will be crucial in the youngster’s development. How Manchester City manage him, and whether he is loaned out or kept in the squad to learn under Guardiola, will have a big impact on his whole career.

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David Sansun is a Russian football writer for Just Football and owner of @RubinKazanUK.