Soccer (Football)

Top 10 young male soccer players

This newer generation of young male soccer players continues to break through and make their mark in some of the most watched soccer leagues in the world.

By Ben Kissam

7 min readPublished on 03/09/2023 · 10:55 PM UTC

“That was when I was really young, it’s when it all started and where it all began. Playing as a kid are the best memories for me, scoring goals and making memories that still live with me now,” says soccer player Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Alexander-Arnold started playing for his boyhood club at the age of six. Now 25, he’s a star in the English Premier League, one of the best leagues in the world. Alexander-Arnold likely has a lot of time left on the pitch when you consider veterans like Lionel Messi, who is 35 years old, and the unstoppable Cristiano Ronaldo, who is 38.

The 10 Top Young Male Soccer Players

But who are the next bright stars? Below we take a look at some of the best young male soccer players in the world right now.

Erling Haaland

Hometown: Leeds, England
Age: 22
Position: Center Forward
Club: Manchester City
National Team: Norway

Simply put, Erling Haaland is a goal-scoring machine. The former Red Bull Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund talisman is tall, fast, aggressive, mentally strong, and explosive—with the same swagger and bravado of another very well-known Scandinavian striker (Zlatan Ibrahimovic). In Haaland’s first season in the Premier League, he scored 25 goals in his first 28 appearances—more than several teams had scored all season combined! He’s deadly from everywhere, including penalty kicks, having converted 30 of 32 times from the spot during his young career.

Phil Foden

Hometown: Stockport, Manchester
Age: 22
Position: Midfielder
Club: Manchester City
National Team: England

Speaking of Manchester City, Phil Foden is another young frequent scoresheet contributor playing for the Citizens. Foden specializes as an attacking midfielder/winger and has an innate knack for dribbling through tight dribbling spaces and making great crosses. Since joining the top flight from his boyhood club, Foden has scored 31 goals in 115 appearances; a stellar accomplishment for any midfielder. It’s rare to find such talented left-footed midfielders at any age, let alone one that’s 22 years old.

Giovanni Reyna

Hometown: Sunderland, UK
Age: 20
Position: Midfield
Club: Borussia Dortmund
National Team: USA

Gio Reyna enjoyed his breakthrough season with German giants Borussia Dortmund at age 17. He’s been a star for both club and country since. Gio can shoot accurately from outside the box, has vision to set up his teammates for goals (he had 5 assists in 23 starts during his age-18 season in the Bundesliga), and is also a free kick specialist. Experts have been high on Reyna’s potential for a long time, and he’s starting to play like one of the most complete midfielders in the world, as expected.

Bukayo Saka

Hometown: Ealing, London, UK
Age: 21
Position: Midfielder
Club: Arsenal
National Team: England

Perhaps best known for missing a penalty kick that lost England in the 2020 European Championships, Bukayo Saka has rebounded to lead Arsenal to the top of the Premier League during the 2022-23 season. He’s also become one of the best, most creative attacking midfielders in the world. Saka’s natural dribbling abilities allow him to beat defenders at a high rate one-on-one. He has 24 goals in 116 appearances for Arsenal, where he became a starter when he was 18. He also has 22 assists and over 400 crosses into the box, making him a well-rounded threat in the final third of the field.

Jamal Musiala

Hometown: Stuttgart, Germany
Age: 19
Position: Forward
Club: Bayern Munich
National Team: Germany

Jamal Musiala has been a star since securing his starting spot for one of the biggest clubs in the world, FC Bayern Munich. He’s been scoring goals for the German leaders since he was 17, which is why he is still often referred to as The Wunderkind. Dribbling past opposing defenses where Musalia excels; his dribbling success rate is 58%, which is ahead of stars and legends like Thomas Muller, Leroy Sane, and RB Leipzig player Christopher Nkunku.

Florian Wirtz

Hometown: Pulheim, Germany
Age: 19
Position: Midfielder
Club: Bayer 04 Leverkusen
National Team: Germany

Florian Wirtz does a little bit of everything, which makes him so special. At first glance, he seems like a shot creator until you see how good he is with the ball at his feet when passing and creating chances for his teammates. As a midfielder, playing two ways is important, and few do it better than Wirtz, who has won 22 tackles in the defensive half of the field this season in the Bundesliga. All told, he’s scored 13 goals in 63 matches for his club.

Gavi

Hometown: Los Palacios y Villafranca, Spain
Age: 18
Position: Midfielder
Club: Barcelona
National Team: Spain

Gavi is the man many know as the player Barcelona put a $1 billion (yes, billion) release clause on when he signed his newest contract. Look at his goals and assist ratio and you might think the club is crazy. But what Gavi does best doesn’t always show up on the score sheet. His technical ability and game IQ are developed far beyond his years. He’s also quite versatile and can play anywhere in the midfield, though he prefers to work his way inside, where his dynamic first touch helps create chances.

Pedri

Hometown: Bajamar, Spain
Age: 20
Position: Central/Left Midfield
Club: Barcelona
National Team: Spain

Pedri and Gavi together in Barcelona’s midfield has fans excited about the future of the club, who believe they may have found this generation’s Xavi and Iniesta. Pedri changes direction on a dime and has flat-out speed few players can match. His long balls over the top or through are also impeccable, finding strikers like Robert Lewandowski in the final third of the pitch with precision. He was named Player of the Tournament at the 2020 European Championships.

Jurrien Timber

Hometown: Utrecht, Netherlands
Age: 21
Position: Defender
Club: Ajax
National Team: Netherlands

Soccer fans tend to be traditionalist by nature, so it’s a testament to Jurrien Timber’s defensive abilities that some pundits say he’s changing the way modern defenders should play. Timber checks all the boxes as a defender; he wins balls in the air and makes timely tackles to shut down opposing play. But what he does best is carry the ball and creative offensive sparks. Timber averages 2.2 long balls per game and boasts a pass success rate of nearly 92%. He’s also got 4 goals and 4 assists in his time at Ajax, meaning he’s a rare breed of defender that contributes to the scoresheet, too. His role model, Virgil Van Djik is on record as saying that Jurrien Timber is better than he was when he was 21.

Sandro Tanali

Hometown: Lodi, Italy
Age: 22
Position: Midfield
Club: AC Milan
National Team: Italy

One of the highest forms of praise in world football is to be known as a “regista,” which essentially means a creative dynamo on the pitch. Players like Xavi, Luka Modric, and Andrea Pirlo fall into this rare category of players who play like defensive midfielders but also do so much more. Sandro Tanali is this type of deep lying playmaker, the rare athlete who controls the tempo of the game by understanding what the offense is trying to do, stopping it, then distributing the ball into offensive sides of the pitch. He has 7 goals and 6 assists for AC Milan in his young career so far.

Conclusion

As this newer generation of young male soccer players continues to break through and make their mark in some of the most watched soccer leagues in the world, it’ll be fun to watch who from this list becomes this era’s next Messi or Ronaldo.

The history of soccer is a long and interesting one. But if you watch some clips of these young men playing, you’ll see the future is just as promising!