Here we go! FourFourTwo writer Joe is in the studio to brings us the first edition of his monthly series 'The Boy's A Bit Special.' With so much up and coming talent in world football, Joe breaks down which players you need to keep an eye on in the coming months and just how they are making their mark at such a young age. From an Arsenal youth prospect, to Liverpool's youngest every player, here are the four wonderkids set to define the next generation.
00:00Rio Ngomoua is a first-team squad option for Premier League Champions Liverpool
00:04and he's only just turned 17.
00:06Welcome to a new 4-4-2 series.
00:08The boys are a bit special.
00:09What a moment! What a moment!
00:28Rio, as he likes to be known, swapped Chelsea's academy for Liverpool shortly after his 16th birthday,
00:34already dubbed one of English football's rising stars.
00:36It was a bold move considering how renowned the Blues-Cobham set-up is, having produced a whole host of England internationals in recent times.
00:43But Rio backed himself and within months of arriving at Liverpool, he became involved in senior training,
00:48even appearing on the substitutes bench for a League Cup tie against Southampton.
00:52Before long, he was named in the starting line-up as Liverpool boss Honour Slott selected him to play against Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup,
00:59before featuring and scoring at Anfield during pre-season.
01:03And the buzz as Ngomoua gets the ball and runs!
01:07Oh my goodness me! Is there anything he can't do?
01:11But it was in the 100th minute at St James' Park back in August when Rio, still 16 at the time, well and truly arrived on the scene.
01:18Mo Salah's ball across the Newcastle box was dummied by Dominic Sobberslay for the teenage forward to stroke past Nick Pope,
01:25with the surety and precision of the man who set him up.
01:28Listed as a right-footed left winger, Rio is a straight-line attacker, and by that I mean he goes for goal.
01:34Comfortable on both feet, a fearless dribbler who'll run at his man, leaving defenders' legs in a tangle.
01:39He's like a bowling ball making light work of remaining pins.
01:42Rio has bamboozled youth team defences throughout his admittedly brief youth football career,
01:47because, of course, opponents find the only way to effectively try and stop him is to double and triple up on him.
01:53While there's fluidity to his game that really belies his years, Rio's dribbling style is more jagged, perhaps more unpredictable.
01:59He boasts good acceleration and strength for his size, and technically is no match for the majority of his age mates.
02:06And that's exactly why he was named in Liverpool's Champions League squad this season, at the first time of asking.
02:11Slott clearly trusts in his ability to deliver during brief cameo appearances, and he's demonstrated exactly that so far.
02:18As the season goes on, his minutes and exposure will be managed, as they should, for a player so young and still developing.
02:24But there's little stopping the youngest Premier League goalscorer for 20 years going right to the top.
02:29He's seemingly leapfrogged Italy international Federico Chiesa in the Liverpool pecking order,
02:34and there's even been suggestions that Cody Gakpo's spot on the left-hand side could come under threat
02:39if Rio continues to impress.
02:42In 12 months' time, we might even be talking about the 18-year-old who starts on the wing for the back-to-back Premier League champs.
02:48Into Premier League action is Max Daumann. Everyone here is talking about him right now.
02:54Max Daumann was fouled nine times during one half of an England under-19s fixture earlier this season.
03:00Seven of which were by the same Spanish full-back.
03:03By foul four or five, it was clear they weren't even trying to disguise their attempts at thwarting Daumann illegally anymore.
03:09Also, it's worth mentioning, he's 15.
03:11Well done, he's 13.
03:13He turned 16 on New Year's Eve, and should he appear in the Champions League before then,
03:17would become the youngest ever competitor in Europe's Premier Club competition.
03:21Daumann was playing under-18s football at 13, and under-19s football in official UEFA competitions at 14.
03:27He made his Premier League debut at 15, winning the Gunners a penalty against Leeds within his first 30 minutes on the pitch.
03:41The fact Daumann is reaching these milestones whilst representing a club with a talent pool and resource like Arsenal
03:46is the greatest endorsement of the teenager's undeniable skill.
03:49He's confident, athletic and capable, which is a winning combination for any attacker.
03:54Daumann is a duck and weave player, dodging challenges as best he can while making a beeline for the byline.
03:59The second point is an important one to make because Daumann hasn't always been a right winger,
04:04which is where he's getting minutes under Mikel Arteta.
04:07At younger age groups, he's been more of a number 10, but his skillset is indisputably wingery,
04:12cutting in off the right and putting his preferred left foot to very, very good use.
04:16From an output perspective, Daumann has 20 goals and 10 assists in 25 appearances for Arsenal's 18s.
04:21He isn't just an athlete who can run and run at defences with little to show for it when it matters most.
04:27He's a footballer.
04:28And what about his record for the 21s?
04:30Does it translate?
04:31In all honesty, no.
04:32Because he's skipped the age group altogether and he's already regarded a first-team player,
04:37named in Arsenal's Champions League squad and regularly featuring on the bench.
04:41Despite the fact development is not linear and there are many hurdles for Daumann still to clear,
04:46provided he stays injury-free we can say quite confidently that the first team is where he's going to stay for the foreseeable.
04:52The pass from 17-year-old Bouadi was extraordinary.
04:56In this age of footballers spending almost the entirety of their formative years within indulgent and often overprotective academy surroundings,
05:04it's enriching and encouraging to discover a player who did not, whose talent surpasses the majority of those who did.
05:10Ayub Bouadi didn't join Lille's academy until the age of 14, which in elite footballing terms is pretty late.
05:16It's even more remarkable to consider he was starting semi-regularly for Lille shortly after his 16th birthday,
05:22playing with the self-assurance and confidence of a much, much more experienced pro.
05:26A useful bellwether I find for young players is assessing not how much they get right but how little they get wrong
05:32and Bouadi's accuracy in his passing, positioning and receiving the ball is a great big tick in the 18-year-old midfielder's box.
05:39It mustn't be overlooked either how Bouadi is more robust on the floor than most central midfielders, never mind players of a similar age to him.
05:46He's a big-bodied ball carrier in the middle of the park, covers lots of ground in short bursts and beats the first line of a press
05:52with his ability to create separations from opponents, leveraging that athletic frame of his to great effect.
05:57So far, he's earned his spurs in a possession-heavy Lille side, so he's seeing plenty of the ball and getting a good feel for the pressures of the professional game.
06:05Not that it appears to bother him in the slightest.
06:07Bouadi is less adventurous than many of the more attacking players who will feature in the boys a bit special,
06:12but his function is a crucial one to how any team operates.
06:15In terms of up-and-coming number sixes or number eights across world football,
06:19there are few as accomplished on the field as Bouadi, and few who appear as capable of making the jump to a higher level.
06:25Lille have sustained their model and prolonged European participation through the sale of important players for huge fees over the years.
06:32Nicola Pepe, Victor Ossiman, Lenny Jouro and Raphael Leao are among them.
06:36Ayu Bouadi will be next.
06:38Tyler Dibbling, more like Tyler Dribbling.
06:47Landing Dibbling this summer was perhaps Everton's second best transfer in recent times, after Jack Grealish on a season-long loan of course.
06:54The 19-year-old has had his fair share of clubs already, including a brief spell at Chelsea's renowned Cobham Academy,
07:00but Southampton has always proven to be a safe space and ultimately the launchpad for his career.
07:05Even then, as an even younger teenager, it was clear Dibbling's talent would lead him to the Premier League,
07:09scoring hat-tricks of identical goals in PL2 matches against defenders many years his senior.
07:15Three mazy dribbles into the opposing half, followed by three cool finishes. It's what he does.
07:20The Everton teenager has an excellent command of the ball, not breaking strides, smoothly moving through the gears
07:25with a frame that suggests he should be stoppable, but often isn't.
07:29Give Tyler the ball and get your rest.
07:31That may as well have been Ivan Juric's instruction to his players when the Southampton team were already several goals down in many cases.
07:38Dibbling featured in over 2,000 minutes of senior football for that doomed Southampton side last season,
07:43making 33 Premier League appearances, which is pretty out of the ordinary in any top 5 European league,
07:49never mind the most physically demanding one.
07:51At Everton, he's going to learn from the best, and I don't mean to suggest David Moyes was a marauding winger back in his day.
07:57I'm talking about Jack Grealish.
07:59His breakthrough at Aston Villa saw the Brummie Beckham hacked and chopped up by Premier League defences,
08:04so much so that only Wilfred Zaha really rivals the England international for fouls won over the past decade.
08:10Dibbling, in this case, is the young pretender, if you will.
08:13I also expect Dibbling to become a key player for this new cohort of England under-21s too,
08:18because many of their established wingers have already outgrown the age group.
08:21He's got a long way to go before senior international recognition,
08:24and will need to nail down a starting spot for Everton before that's a realistic possibility.
08:29But don't rule it out in years to come.
08:31The talent is there, the only thing Dibbling needs now is opportunity.
08:35Remember to let 442 know in the comments which teenagers we should be featuring in the next edition of the Boys A Bit Special.
Be the first to comment