The Kids Are Alright!
August 14th 2010 14:43
Being one of the thousands of football manager addicts since my early teens, seeing youngsters such as Mario Balotelli and Ramires command such huge transfer fees this summer doesn’t surprise me, but gives me the feeling of ‘about time!’ Back a few years ago when the computer game series had their clutch of teenagers touted as having huge potential, who were all around my age, I was interested to see how they would develop, and if indeed they would prove to be the next generation of world-class footballers. And based on evidence so far, those predictions may be spot on.
Mario Balotelli has always been one of those youngsters in Europe touted as being a star of the future, something which Roberto Mancini must agree with to spend £24 million on him this week. 28 goals for Inter Milan by the age of 20 proves he can score goals at a high level, though perhaps not prolific. If the Italian striker continues to improve at the rate he is expected too, he could well be a world star very soon, and certainly has an ego to match. He will face competition if he wants to be the leading striker in world football in years to come though, with La Liga in Spain boasting some incredibly exciting young forwards.
Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema and Atletico’s Sergio Aguero could already be considered top players, but the man who I am most eager to see develop, is Bojan of Barcelona. At 19 years old, the Spaniard has already played for the world champions, and is rated by Guardiola as the best finisher at the club, which has Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Lionel Messi and David Villa on its books. A big problem for the nippy teenager could be getting game time, though he was keeping Ibrahimovic and Henry on the bench at the end of last season. The other leading young striker in Europe right now is Pato, already a key man in the AC Milan side.
In terms of other positions in which fantastic prospects are developing, Europe is again brimming with talent. Davide Santon at Inter, Mamadou Sakho at Bordeaux and Toni Kroos at Bayern Munich, have all already established themselves for club and country at their tender ages. A lesser known exciting youngster is Eduardo Salvio, a young Argentinian who signed for Atletico in January, and if you trust the scouts working for football manager, will be a world class winger in the future. It’s not surprising that there are plenty of young South Americans coming through, Ramires the leading member of the group following his £17 million switch to Chelsea. Other names to look out for include Neymar, James Rodriguez, Sebastien Blanco and Daniel Villalva.
On a domestic front, there is reason for Premier League fans to get excited as well. The obvious arrivals of Ramires and Balotelli can only add to the level of talent in the league for years to come. But there are other obvious candidates to be the stars of the league such as Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Giovani Dos Santos, Jack Rodwell, Bebe and Javier Hernandez. But again, if you trust football manager, there are many more to come, such as Liverpool’s new recruit Jonjo Shelvey, and team mate Adam Pepper, Carlos Vela at Arsenal, Jeffrey Bruma at Chelsea, Jeremy Helan at Man City and Daniel Pacheco, again of Liverpool.
Football manager’s tips for the future a few years ago appear to be proving to be right, with players like Balotelli, Vela, Bojan, Benzema and Pato now scaling the heights of Europe’s top clubs. So it is certainly worth keeping in mind some of these possible stars of the future, with the creators of the game last season picking out Mexican 16 year old Martin Galvan as the brightest young footballer on the planet, and he could well be snapped up by one of Europe’s elite very soon. It will definitely be interesting to see how these youngsters develop over the next couple of seasons, and if they become the world class players they have tipped to be.
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