With the summer transfer window officially open, every club across Europe will be scouring the football transfer market to find the next young star who can make an instant impression and offer serious value for money. There are plenty of gems waiting to be unearthed within the landscape of European football, and the competition for snapping up academy talents across the continent is immense.
Players like Gabriel Martinelli, Jadon Sancho and Harvey Eliott have gone on to shine for their respective clubs since signing as teenagers, and here are five wonderkids every European football club should have their eye on right now.
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Club: Middlesborough
Age: 21
Middlesborough right-back Djed Spence enjoyed a dream season on loan at Nottingham Forest in 2021/22, playing a massive part in Steve Cooper’s side as they clinched promotion to the Premiership. The England under 21 international bagged two goals and five assists for Forest in 42 Championship appearances, and his blistering speed, nimble footwork and dynamic dribbling make him one of the best young offensive right-backs in Europe. Although there are concerns over his defensive positioning and awareness, a lot of that can be masked when playing at wing-back for a possession-based side.
Tottenham and Antonio Conte are rumoured to be heavily interested in the Englishman this summer, and despite his defensive frailties, Spence would be a major coup for any top side looking to add some width and explosiveness to their backline.
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Club: Olympique Lyonnais
Age: 18
Rayan Cherki has long been touted as the best talent to come out of the Lyon academy since Karim Benzema, and the young Frenchman is already being monitored by some of Europe’s biggest clubs like Real Madrid. Cherki became the youngest player to appear in a UCL knockout match when he came on in the 2020 semi-final against Bayern Munich, and the 18-year-old has excelled for the French club domestically and in Europe this season.
The playmaker is gifted with extraordinary technical ability and vision and is crucially adept at playing with both feet, making him very difficult to stop in tight spaces. Cherki is also strong in 1v1 situations and is capable of creating chances for others and scoring goals himself due to his ability to strike the ball cleanly off both feet.
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Club: PSV Eindhoven
Age: 20
Former Tottenham Hotspur academy product Noni Madueke followed Jadon Sancho’s footsteps to move abroad at an early age, and the Englishman has not looked back since joining PSV Eindhoven in 2018. The 20-year-old has 14 goals and eight assists in 24 starts in the Dutch league and is an elite powerful dribbler, blessed with incredible athleticism to go along with his bag of tricks and ball-striking ability. Although Madueke’s PSV contract runs till 2025, the winger has always been destined to return to the Premier League and clubs such as Manchester United, Leicester City, and Chelsea have shown interest in bringing him home.
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Club: Bayer Leverkusen
Age: 23
Edmond Tapsoba has enjoyed a swift and stellar rise in European football, and the Burkina Faso international cemented his status as a pivotal cog in the Bayer Leverkusen side that finished third in the Bundesliga last season. Athletically, Tapsoba is a freak of nature that can easily outmuscle his opponents with his speed and physicality. The centre-back is also immensely gifted on the ball, able to beat the opposition press by playing line-breaking passes or carry the ball into midfield with his dribbling if passing lanes are blocked. Tapsoba occasionally shows his age and lack of academy schooling on the defensive end, but these mistakes could be ironed out with time and coaching at the highest level.
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Club: US Sassuolo
Age: 23
While premium strikers such as Darwin Nunez, Victor Oshimen and Erling Haaland have stolen all the attention this summer, one value pick football clubs should look at as an alternative is Gianluca Scamacca. Standing at 6’5″, Scamacca is incredibly mobile for someone of his size and offers a unique athletic profile in the mould of a young Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The Sassuolo forward is a lethal ball-striker, scoring 16 goals in 25 starts in the Serie A last season. The Italian is still to master the predatory instincts of a top striker in and around the penalty box, but his hold-up play and dribbling have seen massive improvements over the last two seasons, and the 23-year-old has the potential to be a difference-maker at the highest level.
Shivaan Shah