who is the best young player

Landon Donovan is still U21. He turns 21 in March.

Given his performance in the WC, he'd HAVE to be in that list. Maybe not as the best, but definitely top 5 or so.

 

It would have been alan smith a month and a half ago.

I'd say on of the best youngplayers now is Kim Källström. You will know the name soon enough. He's 19 now and plays in Sweden. I think come Jan he'll be in the premiership.

 

Aah, the old "Landon Donovan is one of the five best young players in the world" argument.

Before the latest BS melt-down, we actually compiled a list of 20 players with quite ridiculous ease who would all be ranked ahead of the (inarguably talented) Donovan by anyone who is sane.

I wish I could remember it all, but off the top of my head, Saviola, Riquleme, van der Vart, Cambiasso, van der Meyde, D'Allesandro, Djibril Cisse, Anthony Le Tallec, Sebastian Frey, Phillipe Mexes, Eder Bau and Enzo Maresca would all feature ahead of Donovan.

I've nothing against the guy and do think he is an excellent player - but Jesus! To think that we Heeeeengleeeeesh get accused of over-hyping our players ... usually by Yanks.

 

Oh c'mon now kev.
He wouldn't even make #1 for Chelsea as Carlton Cole is streets ahead of him and he's just 19.

 

There is no way Rooney is better then Van dar Vaart, I don't think Everton has anyone on there team better then VdV... Don't get me wrong Rooney has talent and will prob be a good player, but lets save the hype untill after he scores more goals in EPL... What does he have 2?...

 

Re: Re: who is the best young player

Actually, Rooney has 3 goals for Everton. And that's 3 more than Van der Vaart had for Ajax back when he had just turned 17.

 

Agreed. I'm really proud of the way the US performed in the World Cup, and Donovan played well throughout. But that handful of games doesn't make him one of the best five young players in the world. He was very, very average after the World Cup for San Jose. Whatever excuses people want to make for him doesn't change the fact that he disappeared during MLS games. That's not characteristic of one of the best youth players in the world.
Personally, I'd give the nod to Saviola.

 

I havent seen as much as I have heard of Rooney, but he has impressed me with the glimpses I have caught so far. Same situation Van der Vart for me but I have been impressed with his CL performances i am sure he will move to a larger club in the next few years with a large price tag to boot.

Although he's an under 23 Matteo Brighi of Italy and Parma, is quite good in the midfeild and leaps and bounds ahead of Landon Donovon.

I think Donovan is quite good but I wish everyone would stop making him out to be the savior of the US soccer situation, and just let him develop as a player. The fact that he is being hyped as the next big thing in th US soccer scene shows that there has never truley been a player of World Class talent produced here on our shores.( Sometimes I wish that we would look at players on talent first then marketability second, I mean lets face it in the States no one is going to buy Nike stuff from someone that looks like Peter Beardsley)

The best thing that could happen to him is to go back to germany and train with real top level players day in and day out, then claims to him being one of the worlds top young players would be based more on fact than winning a Golden Ball at the U-17 World Cup( almost four years ago). This is assuming he could hack it with Bayer.

 

Here's a list of good young field players still in the Champions League.

Barcelona:
Saviola '81
Fernando Navaro '82
Xavi '80
Thiago Motta '82

Newcastle:
Hugo Viana '83
Ameobi '81

Arsenal:
Ashley Cole '80
Kolo Toure '81

Roma:
Antonio Cassano '82

Ajax:
Van Der Vaart '83
Mido '83
Chivu '80
Steven Pienaar '82

Real Madrid:
Minambres '81
Pavon '80
Cambiasso '80
Portillo '82

Dortmund:
Christoph Metzelder '80
Tomas Rosicky '80

Lok Moscow:
Serguei Ovtchinnikov '84

Man U:
John O'Shea '81

Basle:
Ivan Ergic '81

This is just the under-23 players that are lucky enough to still be in the Champions League. There are dozens of other talented youngsters to be found elsewhere, and if you start including 79s then the list almost doubles. There are quite a few quality young players in the world, and Landon Donovan certainly makes the list. However, I don't think he's really top-five material.

 

Re: Re: Re: who is the best young player

I dunno what VdV did as a 17 year old, but as an 18/19 year old he scored 15 goals for Ajax in 23 appearences... Don't get me wrong Rooney might go out and score 15 next year, but until then there isn't a coach save maybe Evertons, that would pick Rooney over VdV...

 

I haven't seen much of Van der Vaart, but the glimpses I have seen, he looks a good player. I'll be able to see myself in February when Ajax visit Highbury.

Rooney obviously has talent, witness the finish against Blackburn at the weekend, top quality. And his goal against us wasn't bad either.

From what I have seen, Saviola has bee doing the business for Barca and would get the nod from me at the moment. He can create as well as finish and is doing it at one of the biggest clubs in the world in front of a pretty unforgiving crowd. A big un and a little un in the form of Saviola and Kluivert seem a good combination.

 

"I wish I could remember it all, but off the top of my head, Saviola, Riquleme, van der Vart, Cambiasso, van der Meyde, D'Allesandro, Djibril Cisse, Anthony Le Tallec, Sebastian Frey, Phillipe Mexes, Eder Bau and Enzo Maresca would all feature ahead of Donovan"

http://www.fifa.com/events/playergala/2002/results/wp2002cm.pdf

specifically mexico and cape verde islands. i know...i know...who's mexico and the cape verde islands. but find one of the names listed above as a candiate for ANY country. and then perhaps you might have a stronger argument about TOP 5. just because LD is playing for the US and MLS is a poor argument.

 

USA Today

Did anyone read the article in it yesterday about Donovan?

Quite lenghty and well written.
Guess he's staying put for the next 2 years as Bayer said it was okay.
He turned down over a million and a half dollars over that time (is that right?) and will play for 400,000 dollars in MLS.
The only thing i would have to say about it is that the fella that wrote it hasn't sen any of the real big stars.He made the young fella out to be a god and the single most importent reason to the success, both present and future, of the MLS.
The second part may well be true, but i would differ as to the level of play he sees him at.

 

The argument that LD making this list makes him one of the top five young players is pretty bad too. It's clear that this list heavily weights World Cup performance over more comprehensive factors. Also, look at some of the other players to make the list. Diouf, Sas, Hong Myung Bo, Veron, Ilhan Mansiz, Edmilson, Nakata, Kluivert... why are these players being mentioned as World Player Of The Year? These selections are laughable, and so is mentioning Donovan. Let's judge how good a player is by their performance over a period of time on the field, not by the results of a popularity contest.

 

Many Exciting Players To Know About...
Rooney Is Probably Best Teen...
To Think He Scored On Arsenal In the middle Of THeir amazing run before he turned 7 is amazing...
He Has loads Of Potential...

 

true tlm.

that's why i wasn't making the argument that this list confirms that he is a "top 5 rising star" candidate. just saying that none of the other players mentioned were on list. so this argument is just as ridiculous as any other argument to say that he isn't. the truth is is that: to say that wayne rooney to saviola are better players is to only use the apertura, la liga, or epl as variables in deciding. which is a poor argument as well. until all of these players are on the same field or the same tournament, we'll never know.

that's all.

 

Well, that's true to some extent, but we're not going to get all these players together any time soon. You have to see the players, and evaluate their performances in their contexts. That's why I rate Saviola so highly, and also think Landon Donovan is going to be really good. Saviola has been a consistent star in a very difficult situation at Barcelona. He is proving how good he is every week by playing well at a club full of talent, and coming up big in the Champions League as well. Granted Barcelona are having domestic troubles at the moment, but Saviola has been a bright spot for them, IMO. Everyone can see his obvious talent, and what makes it even more impressive is that, most often, he puts it to good use on the field.
Contrast this with Landon Donovan. Donovan played very well in MLS in 2001, and had a strong, assured performance in the World Cup. He weighed in with 2 goals, and had an excellent 5 matches. However, his performances since then have been absolutely ordinary. The peaks and valleys that I see in his performances mean that I rate him lower than other young players who are more consistent. I'm not knocking Donovan just because he plays in MLS. I actually have a good amount of respect for the quality of lots of MLS teams, 'Quakes included. However, I do think that players like Van Der Vaart, Saviola, Riquleme, and Cambiasso are all leaps and bounds better than Donovan, and a whole host of others edge him, but by less of a margin. I'm not sure that one needs to see players on the same field before being able to rate them.

 

There has been little mention of up and coming starlets in South America. I'd be interested to hear a little more about these players.

 

I don't think Rooney or any of the other young stars come close to what Rubinho already is.
I really enjoy watching Rooney and the others mentioned here that I've seen but none of them have come close to the pure all around skill, speed and football sense of Rubinho.
I have a felling that in a couple of years there will be no debate at all surrounding this unless maybe Adu sneaks up on all of us sooner than we expect (just a USA hope).

 

Before he turned 7? And I thought Freddy Adu was impressive...

 

It was a week before he turned 7 that Rooney did that..Adu scored 2 for the US U-17s before when he was 3.
Hey... 3 Pasadena posts in a row!

 

Rooney is fantastic and if you see some of his tapes when he was young you will know what i am talking about

 

Actually, it was closer to the end of their amazing run. Actually, it *was* the end of their amazing run