Don Balon is a Spanish football magazine with a good line in fate-tempting articles predicting the next generation of world superstars.


Of course, speculating on the potential of young players is a risky business, as the BBC found out in that internet-infamous Why England will win Euro 2008 article, but Don Balon stake their reputation on having a cultured eye for talent

This year's list, featuring players born on or after 01/01/1989, is below, along with a lineup from 2001 for an idea of how impressively accurate the prescient Spaniards have been in the past.


Dominic Adiyiah (Reggina)

Toby Alderweireld (Ajax)

Hamdan Al Kamali (Al Wahda)

Jano Ananidze (Spartak Moscow)

Andre Ayew (Marseille)

Khouma Babacar (Fiorentina)

Holger Badstuber (Bayern)

Gareth Bale (Tottenham)

Mario Balotelli (Manchester City)

Ben Sahar (Hapoel Tel Aviv)

Bojan (FC Barcelone)

Bo-Kyung Kim (Oita Trinita)

Ryad Boudebouz (Sochaux)

Dedryck Boyata (Manchester City)

Breno (Bayern)

Sergio Canales (Real Madrid)

Mehdi Carcela-Gonzalez (Standard)

Luc Castaignos (Feyenoord)

Diego Contento (Bayern)

Phillippe Coutinho (Internazionale)


David De Gea (Atlético de Madrid)

Alvaro Domínguez (Atlético Madrid)

Giovanni dos Santos (Tottenham)

Douglas Costa (Shakhtar)

Alan Dzagoev (CSKA Moscow)

Gueïda Fofana (Le Havre)

Paulo Henrique (Santos)

Giuliano (Internacional)

Maxime Gonalons (Lyon)

Mario Götze (Dortmund)


Antoine Griezmann (Real Sociedad)

Eden Hazard (Lille)

Jordan Henderson (Sunderland)

Markus Henriksen (Rosenborg)

Abel Hernández (Palermo)

Ander Herrera (Zaragoza)

Lewis Holtby (Mainz)

James Rodriguez (Porto)

Stefan Jovetic (Fiorentina)

Vaclav Kadlec (Sparta Prague)


Shinji Kagawa (Dortmund)

Gael Kakuta (Chelsea)

Alan Kardec (Benfica)

Simon Kjaer (Wolfsburg)

Maksim Koval (Dinamo Kiev)

Ismail Köybasi (Besiktas)

Toni Kroos (Bayern)

Manuel Lanzini (River Plate)

Adem Ljajic (Fiorentina)

Dejan Lovren (Lyon)


Romelu Lukaku (Anderlecht)

Lukman Haruma (Monaco)

Federico Macheda (Manchester United)

Guido Marilungo (Sampdoria)

Marko Marin (Werder Bremen)

Emmanuel Mayuka (Young Boys)

Thomas Müller (Bayern)

Iker Muniain (Athletic Bilbao)

Marc Muniesa (Barcelona)

Ezequiel Muñoz (Palermo)


Yann Mvila (Rennes)

Tomas Necid (CSKA Moscou)

Neymar (Santos)

Sotiris Ninis (Panathinaikos)

Nikolas N'Koulou (Monaco)

Javier Pastore (Palermo)

Alexandre Pato (Milan)

Pablo Piatti (Almería)

Miralem Pjanic (Lyon)

Rafael (Manchester United)


Yaroslav Rakytskiy (Shakhtar)

Diego Renan (Cruzeiro)

Marco Reus (Mönchengladbach)

Emmanuel Rivière (Saint-Etienne)

Jack Rodwell (Everton)

José Rondón (Málaga)

Victor Ruiz (Espanyol)

Mamadou Sakho (PSG)

Davide Santon (Internazionale)

Georgy Shennikov (CSKA Moscow)


Xherdan Shaqiri (Basel)

Harmeet Singh (Vålerenga)

Moussa Sissoko (Toulouse)

Robin Soder (Göteborg)

Miroslav Stoch (Fenerbahçe)

Yannis Tafer (Toulouse)

Thiago (Barcelona)

Lacina Traoré (Cluj)

Ricky Van Wolfswinkel (Utrecht)

Carlos Vela (Arsenal)


Jelle Vossen (Genk)

Ante Vukusic (Hadjuk Split)

Theo Walcott (Arsenal)

Vladimir Weiss (Rangers)

Georginio Wijnaldum (Feyenoord)

Jack Wilshere (Arsenal)

Danny Wilson (Liverpool)

Siyanda Xulu (Mamelodi Sundowns)

Andriy Yarmolenko (Dinamo Kiev)

Sercan Yildirim (Bursaspor)


Don Balon's 2001 list

1. Djibril Cisse (STR, Auxerre) 2. Andres D'Allesandro (AM, River Plate) 3. Leandro Bonfim (AM, Vitoria/PSV Eindhoven) 4. Fernando Jose Torres (STR, Atletico Madrid) 5. Jermaine Pennant (R/WNG, Arsenal) 6. Rafael Van der Vaart (C/MF, Ajax) 7. Florent Sinama-Pongolle (STR, Le Havre/Liverpool) 8. Piotr Trochowski (AM, FC Bayern Munich) 9. Anthony Le Tallec (AM/CFWD, Le Havre/Liverpool) 10. Mourad Meghni (AM, Bologna) 11. Pedro Mantorras (STR, Benfica Lisbon) 12. David Odonkor (FWD, Borussia Dortmund) 13. Darren Fletcher (C/MF, Manchester United) 14. John Welsh (C/DM, Liverpool) 15. Kim Kallstrom (CM, BK Hacken) 16. Philippe Mexes (CB, Auxerre) 17. Johnny Heitinga (CB, Ajax) 18. Juan Andreu Melli (CM, Real Betis) 19. Baldo Di Gregorio (CB, Eintract Frankfurt) 20. Andres Iniesta (AM, Barcelona) 21. Milan Baros (STR, Liverpool) 22. Marius Niculae (STR, Sporting Lisbon) 23. Fabricio Coloccini (CB, Milan/on loan to Alaves) 24. Ricardo Bernardo Quaresma (L/WNG, Sporting Lisbon) 25. Maicon (RWB, Cruzeiro) 26. Hugo Viana (CM, Sporting Lisbon) 27. Arjen Robben (L/WNG, Groningen/PSV Eindhoven) 28. Julio Colombo (CB, Montpellier) 29. Gregory Vignal (LB, Liverpool) 30. Jermaine DeFoe (STR, West Ham United) 31. Gareth Barry (LB, Aston Villa) 32. Marat Izmailov (AM/FWD, Lokomotiv Moscow) 33. Hassan Yebda (DM, Auxerre) 34. Leandro Romagnoli (AM, San Lorenzo) 35. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (CFWD, Ajax) 36. Dean Ashton (CFWD, Crewe Alexandria) 37. Ednilson (AM, Benfica Lisbon) 38. Chris Kirkland (GK, Liverpool) 39. Emilliano S. Dudar (CB, Velez Sarsfield) 40. Helder Postiga (STR, Porto) 41. Ahmed 'Mido' Hossam (STR/LWNG, Ajax) 42. Joaquin Sanchez (L/WNG, Real Betis) 43. Diego Ribas (AM, Santos) 44. Jay Lucas (CFWD, Southampton) 45. Niko Kranjcar (AM/CFWD, Dinamo Zagreb) 46. Christian Petereit (RB/CB, Schalke 04) 47. Ewerthon (STR/FWD, Borussia Dortmund) 48. Gael Givet (CB/LB, Monaco) 49. Francesco Lodi (AM, Empoli/Parma) 50. Massimo Donati (DM, AC Milan) 51. Gatti Ribeiro (RWB, Blooming) 52. Jeremie Aliadiere (STR, Arsenal) 53. Francesco Tarantino (LB/CB, Athletic Bilbao) 54. Lourenco Da Silva (FWD/LWNG, Sporting Lisbon) 55. Alexander Ludwig (L/WNG, Werder Bremen) 56. Landon Donovan (STR, San Jose Earthquakes) 57. Ricardo Costa (CB, FC Porto) 58. Filip Trojan (L/WNG, Schalke 04) 59. Carlos Martins (CM, Sporting Lisbon) 60. Serhat Akin (STR, Fenerbahce) 61. Johnnier Montano (AM/FWD, Parma-on loan to Verona) 62. Mark Fotheringham (C/MF, Celtic) 63. Rubinho (GK, Corinthians) 64. Michael Chopra (STR, Newcastle) 65. Edward Johnson (STR, Dallas Burn) 66. Johnny Van Beukering (STR, Vitesse) 67. Santino Quaranta (STR, DC United) 68. Andreas Hinkel (RB/RWB, Stuttgart) 69. Bojan Djrodjic (L/WNG, Manchester United) 70. Matteo Brighi (CM, Juventus) 71. Cherno Samba (CFWD, Millwall) 72. Hassan Ahamada (LWNG/STR, Nantes) 73. Theo Janssen (LM, Vitesse) 74. Derik Boateng (AM, Panathinaikos) 75. Mauro Rosales (R/WNG, Newell's Old Boys) 76. Dulee Johnson (STR, BK Hacken) 77. Fernando Macedo Nano (L/WNG, Barcelona) 78. Michael Essien (D/MF, Bastia) 79. Andres Oliveira (STR/FWD, Perth Glory) 80. Candido Costa (AM, Porto) 81. Tuomas Aho (CB, My-Pa) 82. Dimitar Berbatov (STR, Bayer Leverkusen) 83. Thijs Houwing (CFWD, Twente) 84. Labinot Harbuzi (AM, Malmo FF) 85. Michael Zepek (CM, Bayer Leverkusen) 86. Mika Vayrynen (AM, FC Jokerit) 87. Ramon Calliste (STR, Manchester United) 88. Christoph Preuss (RWB, Eintract Frankfurt) 89. Keith Kelly (CM, PSG) 90. Aldo Jara (FWD, Cerro Portano) 91. Kieran Richardson (L/WNG, Manchester United) 92. Leonardo Santiago (L/WNG, Feyenoord) 93. Shaun Maloney(STR, Celtic) 94. Azar Karadas (CFWD/CB, Brann Bergen) 95. Kaka (AM, Sao Paulo) 96. Benjamin Auer (CFWD, Borussia M'Gladbach) 97. Daniyel Cimen (LB/CB, Eintract Frankfurt) 98. Erdal Kilicaslan (CFWD, Bayern Munich) 99. David Prutton (D/MF, Nottingham Forest) 100. Alexander Hleb (AM, Stuttgart)


This post, written by Richard Gilzene, is republished with permission from The Spoiler. Go there often if you like soccer stuff.