Haaland, Vinicius, Pedri, Saka: Who is the best player aged 21 or below?

In the modern football era the best stars often blossom at a younger age than they have done in generations gone by.

Maybe it’s the better standard of coaching in youth football or the more scientific approach to training and dieting which allows players to reach their peak physical state sooner, maybe it’s both.

Whatever the reason, the sheer depth of quality young talent littered throughout European football is genuinely immense right now.

So, it must have been a tricky proposition for our friends at over ESPN when they decided to embark upon writing up their annual piece that ranks the globe’s greatest football players aged 21 or younger.

Previous headliners have been the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joao Felix to name a few, all of which have now become ineligible.

Which means it’s time to see how the next crop of youngsters got on – Football Manager loyalists get your notepads out, this one could be useful.

Check out the full list below:

39. Callum Hudson-Odoi (Chelsea)

38. Tino Livramento (Southampton)

37. Sergino Dest (Barcelona)

36. Jeremy Doku (Rennes)

35. Fabio Vieira (Porto)

34. Brenden Aaronson (Salzburg)

33. Eric Garcia (Barcelona)

32. Piero Hincapie (Bayer Leverkusen)

31. Marc Guehi (Crystal Palace)

First things first, let’s run over a couple of notable omissions: Curtis Jones, Wesley Fofana, Harvey Elliot – and don’t blow your head off when you read this – Ansu Fati, all miss out due to either having sustained serious injuries that kept them out for the majority of the season or through lack of game time.

Harsh but fair, given they are being judged on this seasons’ performances.

Sneaking onto the back end of the list we have several Premier League representatives in