Wunderkids: Building football’s most exciting young XI - week three: Ryan Gravenberch, midfielder

It is the stuff of management dreams — a blank cheque to build the most exciting young starting XI in world football.

But that is exactly what new BBC Sounds podcast Wunderkids is offering, in fantasy form at least, over its 11 episodes. The first three episodes are available to listen to now.

The Wunderkids team, in conjunction with BBC Sport, have come up with 11 players — and presenter Steve Crossman will be joined by experts to discuss the latest inclusion, with one new player revealed each week.

So far, new Manchester City forward Julian Alvarez and Bayer Leverkusen winger Florian Wirtz have made the cut — and now Ajax midfielder Ryan Gravenberch joins them.

At just 19, Gravenberch has already played 93 times for Ajax and 10 for the senior Netherlands team, including twice at Euro 2020.

He is a deep-lying central midfielder with a great engine who chips in with the odd goal too, becoming the youngest player since 1981 to score in a Dutch Cup final last season.

In 2018, aged 16 years and 130 days, he became the youngest player to feature for Ajax in the Eredivisie — beating a record set by the legendary Clarence Seedorf in 1992.

The brother of ex-Reading striker Danzell Gravenberch, Ryan has been compared to compatriots Frank Rijkaard and Frenkie de Jong — and called a «better version of Paul Pogba».external-link

Manchester United and Liverpool are among the European giants linked with a move to try and lure him from Ajax.

De Telegraaf journalist Marcel van der Kraan

«If you look at his father, he's 6ft 5in, a giant of a guy. Surely that's where the height came from. Ryan has an athlete's body.

»This is maybe why he stood out so early and why Ajax picked him, with his great skills and technique, and brought him to the academy.