Scouting report: best performing young players

Thanks to the collaboration with Wyscout, the CIES Football Observatory has developed a robust and innovative method for comparing player performance. This report presents the footballers from 65 leagues around the world born in 2004 or later with the best performance index in the current or last completed season for the leagues alredy finished.

The performance index used to establish rankings is calculated on a 100-basis from player activity in six areas of the game: ground defence, aerial play, distribution, chance creation, take on and finishing. This other study details the methodology exclusively developed to measure performance in each of these areas.

The scouting report presents the 20 best performing young footballers for 20 categories defined according to players’ main position and technical characteristics. For each player, we alspo present his estimated transfer value according to the exclusive CIES Football Observatory statistical model. At the top of the list in their respective categories are:

Goalkeepers: Guillaume Restes (Toulouse) and Rome Jayden Owusu-Oduro (AZ Alkmaar).

Centre backs: Abdukodir Khusanov (Lens), Pau Cubarsí (Barcelona) and Taras Mykhavko (Dynamo Kyiv).

Full/wing backs: Jorrel Hato (Ajax), Malick Diouf (Slavia Prague), Oliver Braude (Heerenveen), Martim Fernandes (Porto) and Geovany Quenda (Sporting CP).

Midfielders: Warren Zäire-Emery (Paris St-Germain), Aleksandar Pavlović (Bayern Munich), João Neves (Paris St-Germain), Kendry Paez (Independente del Valle) and Aleksey Batrakov (Lokomotiv Moskow).

Wingers: Kenan Yildiz (Juventus), Thiago Fernández (Vélez Sarsfield), Lamine Yamal (Barcelona) and Arda Güler (Real Madrid).

Centre forwards: Samu Aghehowa (Porto) and Kauã Elias (Fluminense).

>>> Top 20s per category (update if the file is not displayed)