Wunderkids: Building football’s most exciting young XI - week seven: Josko Gvardiol, centre-back

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 seven 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, those to have made the cut are new Manchester City forward Julian Alvarez, Bayer Leverkusen winger Florian Wirtz, Ajax midfielder Ryan Gravenberch, Santos defender Kaiky, Barcelona midfielder Gavi and Rennes winger Kamaldeen Sulemana — and now RB Leipzig defender Josko Gvardiol joins them.

Gvardiol was spotted at eight years old by Croatia's most successful club, Dinamo Zagreb, and he joined the same academy that acted as the finishing school for Luka Modric and Mateo Kovacic.

After playing at left-back or centre-midfield, an academy coach moved him into central defence. And so Gvardiol developed into one of the most sought-after commodities in the modern game — a left-sided centre-back who's comfortable on the ball.

He made his league debut at 17 in 2019, scoring the only goal in his second league appearance, and Dinamo went on to win the league title in 2019-20.

Gvardiol had also caught the eye in the Uefa Youth League and Leeds United reportedly made a bid before he signed for Leipzig on a five-year contract for 16m euros (£13.4m), plus add-ons, in September 2020.

He remained on loan with Dinamo for 2020-21, winning another league title, before making his international debut last June, and he did enough to earn his first