Thursday 1 December 2011

World Soccer's 100 Brightest Young Talents

Following on from IBWM's review of Don Balon's top 100 youngsters from last year, I thought it would be interesting to take a step further back in time and look at a similar project that World Soccer conducted way back in 2001. In the February 2001 edition they looked at the world's 100 brightest young stars and considered their future prospects.
Using slightly different criteria they rated the 100 best players born in 1978 or later (making them 22 or under at the time). Naturally by widening the field to some more developed players (Michael Owen for instance would win the Ballon D'Or before 2001 was out) meant there were a few more "sure things" in the list but there were certainly a few that missed the mark.
I'm not going to grade the players as IBWM have done, but it certainly makes for interesting reading.
Yakubu Abubakari – Ghana
Ishmael Addo – Ghana
Raibu Afolabi – Nigeria
Julius Agahowa – Nigeria
Pablo Aimar (Argentina)
Mohammad Al-Shlhood – Saudi Arabia
Mohammed Aliyu – Nigeria
Matthew Amoah – Ghana
Nicolas Anelka – France
Juan Arango - Venezuela
Gerald Asamoah – Germany
Emile Baron – South Africa
DaMarcus Beasley – USA
Igor Biscan – Croatia
Wilfred Bouma – Holland
Wes Brown – England
Moises Candelario – Ecuador
John Carew – Norway
Fabian Carini – Uruguay
Iker Casillas – Spain
Antonio Cassano – Italy
Christian Chivu – Romania
Lambros Choutos – Greece
Philippe Cristanval – France
Joe Cole – England
Bobby Convey – USA
Walter Corozo – Ecuador
Paulo Da Silva – Paraguay
Stephane Dalmat – France
Sebastian Deisler – Germany
Boubacar Diawara – Mali
Aruna Dindane – Ivory Coast
Landon Donovan – USA
Kieron Dyer – England
Edu – Brazil
Emre – Turkey
Samuel Eto’o – Cameroon
Fabio Aurelio – Brazil
Francisco Farinos – Spain
Pascal Feindouno – Guinea
Barry Ferguson – Scotland
Gabri – Barcelona
Ronald Garcia – Bolivia
Steven Gerrard – England
Helton – Brazil
Ahmed Salah Hosny – Egypt
Pius Ikedia – Nigeria
Junichi Inamoto – Japan
Isaac – Angola
Juan – Brazil
Carlos Kameni – Cameroon
Robbie Keane – Republic of Ireland
Harry Kewell – Australia
Meteja Kezman – Yugoslavia
Mickael Landreau – France
Peter Luccin – France
Luis Filipe – Portugal
Claudio Maldonado – Chile
Rafael Marquez – Mexico
Matuzalem – Brazil
Philippe Mexes – France
Aaron Mokoena – South Africa
Jhonnier Montano – Colombia
Tressor Moreno – Colombia
Emile Mpenza – Belgium
Adrian Mutu – Romania
Szilard Nemeth – Slovakia
Andres Oliveira – Uruguay
Michael Owen – England
Christos Patsatzoglou – Greece
Andrea Pirlo – Italy
Claudio Pizarro – Peru
David Pizarro – Chile
Stipe Pletikosa – Croatia
Prince Daye – Liberia
Luis Gatty Ribeiro – Bolivia
John Arne Riise – Norway
Juan Roman Riquelme – Argentina
Leandro Romagnoli – Argentina
Ronaldinho – Brazil
Tomas Rosicky – Czech Republic
Walter Samuel – Argentina
Roque Santa Cruz – Paraguay
Javier Saviola – Argentina
Simao Sabrosa – Portugal
Gonzalo Sorondo – Uruguay
David Suazo – Honduras
Jean-Michel Tchouga – Cameroon
Rodrigo Tello – Chile
Christian Timm – Germany
Razundara Tjikuzu – Namibia
Svetoslav Todorov – Bulgaria
Joselito Vaca – Bolivia
Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink – Holland
Nicola Ventola – Italy
Tobias Willi – Germany
Xavi – Spain
Ngidi Yemweni – DR Congo
Jonathan Zebina – France
Emmanuel Zulu - Zambia

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