40 prospects to follow in 2020
2020 is the start of a new decade, 12 months to discover new talents and choose which ones are our favorites, those to fall in love with and watch for the next 10 years. In this article, we gathered 40 wonderkids that we’re going to…
The four best dribblers in the Premier League
Dribbling is a very important component of football. Truth to be told, apart from scoring goals – which clearly is the most entertaining aspect of all – dribbling is the action that most makes supporter jump on their feet, leaving defenders in the dust and…
Erling Håland – the rise of potential world-class talent from Norway
Sunday 1st July 2018 will go down as the day that Erling Braut Håland truly burst onto the scene. Before then he had long been earmarked as an exceptional young talent, but his performance away against Brann that day sent shockwaves around Norway’s Eliteserien and…
5 wonderkids to follow in the European tournaments
After the first two gamedays of this season’s UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, there have already been discussions about who can become “the next big thing” of European football. So, we asked our friends at L’Ultimo Uomo to pick their 5 most exciting…
5 talents that may leave (or already left) Eliteserien this summer
With just more than a week left before the end of the Norwegian Eliteserien transfer window, our friends at Just Football introduce us to some of the most interesting talents that may leave the league this summer… or that have already done that! Håkon Evjen…
Five possible transfers as the window opens in Sweden’s Allsvenskan
Benjamin Nygren is gone (Genk), Daniel Sundgren is off (Aris), so too are Linus Hallenius (APOEL) and Carl Starfelt (Rubin Kazan). The transfer window in Sweden has only just opened but already several done deals have seen some of the Allsvenskan top players depart for…
12 stand-out tactical players in the Copa América
The Copa América ended with Brazil winning the title last Sunday in a packed Maracanã. This title for the team managed by Tite was the first in the project that started in 2016 and should give the coach more security in one of the highest…
The best talents at the 2019 U-21 European Championship
Yes, we know is almost summertime, but this doesn’t mean we have to give up on watching football all day long, right? Luckily, we don’t have to, as there are plenty of tournaments to watch these days. So, after presenting to you the most interesting…
Kai Havertz: das Wunderkind
Bayer Leverkusen’s exceptionally talented 19-year-old Kai Havertz is unquestionably one of the premier youngsters in world football. Having just finished his third season at the professional level, he reached new heights in the 2018/2019 campaign, where he was an integral component towards Die Werkself qualifying…
The best players at the 2019 U-20 World Cup
In case you missed it, the 2019 U-20 World Cup started a couple of days ago and we already had the chance to see some pretty interesting talent on the pitch. In order not to miss the most exciting ones, we asked L’Ultimo Uomo to…
4 teams that will debut at the next Women’s World Cup
The 2019 Women’s World Cup in France will see twenty-four teams compete for the trophy this summer. Of that group, seven nations will enter their women into an 8th consecutive World cup and maintain their streak of appearing in every edition of the competition. That…
Benjamin Nygren: a star in the making
The season in Sweden may only be a month old but already there’s no doubt who the early star of the show is. Benjamin Nygren is just seventeen years old, but the young talent has been a revelation. With four goals and three assists in…
5 players to watch in the 2019 Norwegian Eliteserien
Wyscout always commits to offering the best insights and analysis to our Wyscout Blog readers, exploring all the leagues and footballers of the Beautiful Game worldwide. To do that, we recently teamed up with Just Football, one of the longest running and most well-respected football…
5 outstanding defensive midfielders in football
As football continues to evolve year after year, there is a certain position that is becoming more and more critical regardless of the tactic used by managers: the defensive midfielder. Or better, as said by our friends at L’Ultimo Uomo, the “midfielder that plays ahead…
Wyscout Talks: Fabio Papagni, Scouting Coordinator at UC Sampdoria
It’s not a mystery how in football attention is focused on what happens on the “main stage”: the football pitch. Results, performances, tactics, everything is analyzed with maniacal meticulousness, taking up the first pages of newspapers, sports channels and even the bar talks. Only a…
Serie B most promising talents
After presenting the 40 prospects to follow in 2019, L’Ultimo Uomo introduces us to the five most promising young footballers from Italian second tier, Serie B. After moving their first steps in professional football, they’re all having their breakthrough season in the league and we…
United’s star man: how Paul Pogba has been revitalized by Ole Solskjaer
Ahead of Manchester United‘s colossal Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain, we look at their masterful midfielder Paul Pogba and why he’s such a key figure for the Red Devils. Given much greater freedom and scope to express himself, Paul Pogba’s been superb since Ole…
40 prospects to follow in 2019
This article was originally published in Italian on L’Ultimo Uomo website, on January 8, 2019. 2019 will be another year for finding new talents and staying in love with the younger ones. In this article, Ultimo Uomo gathered the 40 wonderkids that you must watch…
Wyscout’s Teams of the Season so far
In every self-respecting season in history, the last days of the year are always the best time to sum up what has happened so far, even if several leagues – historically the Premier League and from this year Serie A as well – won’t even…
5 MLS wonderkids you should know something about
Alphonso Davies, 17 years old, Vancouver Whitecaps By Fabrizio Gabrielli Alphonso Davies’s story – from being the son of refugees to become the youngest footballer to ever debut with the National Canadian Team – isn’t just a beautiful tale of integration. It’s also an…
Scouting time: 4 U21 players to follow in English football
Ryan Sessegnon, 18 May 2000, Fulham by Daniele V. Morrone Not yet of legal age, Ryan Sessegnon already has a cult player following and with Fulham he has amazed even those who did not know his name because they do not follow international youth tournaments. To the tune of…
5 key steps when you find a new talent by Richard Bredice
Richard Bredice is first-team opposition analyst at Manchester City. He has been at the Premier League club for five years. Richard’s current focus is on full-team analysis rather than individual players but he has a good grounding in talent identification and highlights the importance of…
5 key steps when you find a new talent by Bruno Costa
Bruno Costa is head of scouting at San Jose Earthquakes. The Brazilian joined the MLS side in the beginning of 2017 and has almost 20-years experience of scouting and as Academy Director for Fluminense FC and Figueirense FC, in the Brazilian top flight (Série A), and…
Scouting time: 4 U21 players to follow in Bundesliga
Leon Bailey By Dario Saltari Leon Bailey seems like a very determined lad. Despite being just twenty years old, he talks like an adult, with a rhetoric in Cristiano Ronaldo style (“Hard work and dedication lets you achieve your goals“), and there are various rumours…
Scouting time: 4 U21 players to follow in Italian Serie A
L’Ultimo Uomo analyzed for Wyscout Blog the most surprising U21 talents all over the world. The 1st article is dedicated to Italian Serie A. Pietro Pellegri – 16 years old – Genoa Pietro Pellegri is 16 years old and has destroyed several age records in Serie A:…
Gianluca Scamacca: a young multi-purpose Primavera striker
In modern football, where formations and positions tend to disappear more and more and where the teams take on different tactical structures within the same match depending on the game play situations, multi-purpose players are increasingly in demand.
Knowing how to do different things and in different areas of the pitch has become fundamental if you don’t want to miss the boat in terms of tactical game play evolution.
Of the young Italian forwards, perhaps the one closest to truly becoming a multi-purpose player, is Sassuolo’s Gianluca Scamacca.
Riccardo Marchizza: Primavera TIM promising Italian talent
Riccardo Marchizza is one of the most promising Italian centre fullbacks around. He has excellent physical and technical qualities: He has a solid build, almost two metres tall, combined with a highly accurate left foot that often manages to find the back of the net. In three years on the youth team, he has already scored 16 goals, a few of which on free kicks..
Alessandro Rossi: characteristics of a U19 top-scorer
Alessandro Rossi promises to continue the long tradition of Italian centre forwards who combine effort and substance. He hasn’t scored since 21 January, exactly one month ago, and yet he is still the top goalscorer in the Italian U19 Group A, and he has maintained an average of 1 goal..
Viktor Tsygankov: a young talent
The wings of the old days are no more, the ones that dribbled and always created numerical superiority. Anyone who agrees with this statement has never seen Viktor Tsygankov at work. The Dinamo Kiev nineteen year-old has already shown his skills in this part of the season and in Champions League on the team coached by Serhij Rebrov..
Amine Harit young, gifted and french
At nineteen years of age, Amine Harit’s playing style does not hinge on dribbling, although he has excellent leg work and top shelf technique at high speed. His coach at Nantes, René Girard, does not consider him a young player to adapt little by little, but rather a footballer capable of covering all the positions in the midfield, reliable enough to be..
Yeferson Soteldo: great dribbling skills, balance and control
Yeferson Soteldo, right or left wing for Zamora, born in 1997, already with playing time on the Venezuelan national team in the match against Colombia that qualified them for the World Cup in Russia. Nimble in short sprints, but with good stamina, excellent ball handling skills even in the spaces, maintaining remarkable control of the ball..
Gabriel Jesus: Flexibility, technique and great finishing on goal
Born on 3 April 1997, Gabriel Jesus already has astonishing numbers. 54 goals in 48 matches in 2013 and 37 in 22 in 2014 at a youth level (Paulista Under 17 league). In 2015, the first season he played at Palmeiras, he scored 7 goals in 37 matches. And, above all, 15 goals in 18 games for the current season..
Ante Ćorić: Ball control, through passes and dribbling
His time has come!!! At eleven years of age Ante Ćorić tried out for Chelsea and Bayern Munich and both teams would have been happy to have him in their youth line up, but he surprised everyone by deciding to transfer to Red Bull Salzburg. Now Napoli, Fiorentina, Milan, Liverpool and other European superpowers seem to be taking an interest..
Nemanja Mihajlović: Speed, ball control and excellent resistance
Nemanja Mihajlović (born in Niš on 19 January 1996) is a Serbian footballer, a midfielder for Partizan Belgrade. He made his début on the Rad first team in the 2012-2013 season against Donji Srem Pećinci. He scored the first goal of his senior career against Borac Čačak. During the winter transfer window, Mihajlović was scouted by the French club AS Saint-Étienne.
Aïssa Mandi: A complete centre back
Aïssa Mandi (Châlons-en-Champagne, 21 October 1991) is an Algerian naturalised French footballer, defender for Reims, French Ligue 1 and the Algerian national team. He is a right footed centre back but he also adapts well with his left.
Hakim Ziyech: A real number 10
Hakim Ziyech, born in 1993, pure talent, already a technical point of reference on the Moroccan National team, as well as on Twente, quickly rose to idol status for fans of the Dutch team. Last year he ended his rookie season in a Tukkers jersey with 11 goals and the most assists of anyone in the entire league.
Youssef Ait Bennasser
This season, although playing in Ligue 2 with Nancy, Youssef Ait Bennasser has already managed to attract the interest of many big European clubs: 21 matches with 2 goals and 2 assists in 2014-15, this year he has already seen playing time in 21 matches and scored one goal.
Dawid Kownacki: A once-in-a-decade talent
At just 8 years of age he joined Lech Poznań, the club he still belongs to. In the Poznań team’s youth sector, Dawid demonstrated exceptionally consistent scoring. From the Under 15 to the Under 19, (with 5 goals in three games in Under 18), he quickly became an irreplaceable pivot point for all of the Polish youth selections.
Blas Riveros: Speed, technique and the will to succeed
Raised in a loving, but humble family, he began with Olimpia de Itauguá as a forward and after just six months he caught the eye of the Olimpia di Asunción youth manager who brought him into the under 14 team when he was just 12…
Marlos Moreno speed and versatility
Since Guardiola was announced, of 11 matches Manchester City has won only 3.
This Premier League derby did not have a clear leader in terms of quantity/quality. The similar average position of both blocks of the teams only changed a little when in the 2nd half Manchester United defended the result on their own half.