World’s best U21s outside the big-5: last year performance

The 533rd CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the outfield players who have not yet turned 21 and are playing outside Europe’s big-5 having performed best over the past year, based on a score out of 100 calculated from their statistics across eight game areas (Impect data), the number of official minutes played, and the competitive level of these matches.

Argentine Gianluca Prestianni tops the rankings with a score of 86.5 out of 100. The Benfica right winger, whose transfer value as estimated by our statistical model already exceeds €50 million, is ahead of AZ Alkmaar’s midfielder Kees Smit and Dinamo Kyiv centre forward Matviy Ponomarenko. Fourth-placed Tomás Aranda (Boca Juniors) is the highest-ranked player active outside of Europe, ahead of Leonel Flores (River Plate) and Álvaro Montoro (Botafogo).

Serbia’s Vasilije Kostov (Red Star Belgrade) is the youngest player in the top 10 (18.2 years of age). The American Cavan Sullivan (Philadelphia Union, 16.9), his compatriot Adri Mehmeti (New York Red Bulls, 17.4) and the Mexican Gilberto Mora (Club Tijuana, 17.9) are the youngest talents in the top 100. In total, no fewer than 34 leagues are represented in the first 100 positions, with a maximum of 14 players from the Dutch Eredivisie.

>>> Full data

>>> Method to analyse players’ pitch performance

>>> Method to assess matches’ sporting level

>>> More performance data with Impect

>>> New Prospect Sheet : Winsley Boteli