The midfield is the lynchpin of your tactic. From the engine room at defensive midfield to the playmaking wizardry of the number 10, your midfield is essential when it comes to success on the pitch. In Football Manager 2022, they'll be key to your team and will be the focal point for a lot of work both defensively and offensively.
So, here are the best young midfielders to snap up on Football Manager 2022. There are plenty of options of course, and every player develops vastly differently from one save to another, but if you can stump up the cash, these young FM22 midfielders will do fantastically for you. Oh, and Pedri isn't in this list - on the game's full release date he'll have a release clause of €1 billion set in stone. He won't be going anywhere any time soon.
Other articles in this series:
- The best wonderkids to sign in Football Manager 22
- The best free agents to sign in Football Manager 22
- The best defenders to sign in Football Manager 22
- The best young strikers to sign in Football Manager 22
- The best save ideas for Football Manager 22
- A guide to tactics and instructions for success in Football Manager 22
- The best coaches for 5 star training in Football Manager 22
- The best mods and add ons to make your Football Manager 22 save more fun
Best Football Manager 22 Young Midfielders
Oliver Skipp
- Club: Tottenham
- Age: 20
- Position: DM/MC
- Transfer Value: £26m-£37m
After a team-of-the-season showing on loan at Norwich last season in the Championship, Oliver Skipp is a regular fixture in the Spurs starting lineup this season. If you can find the cash though, he'll end up being a stalwart in your side. A solid defensive midfielder can be amazingly useful until well into his 30s, so investment in Oliver Skipp is sure to end up being a great move.
Angelo Stiller
- Club: Hoffenheim
- Age: 20
- Position: DM/MC
- Transfer Value: £7m-£10.5m
For a bit of a value move, Angelo Stiller of Hoffenheim could be a brilliant addition to your squad. He's more of a playmaker than other, more combative central defensive midfielders. Still, from a deep-lying role Stiller can perform excellently as part of a double pivot in the middle. If you want, you can train him up as more of a ball-winner too!
Dário Essugo
- Club: Sporting CP
- Age: 16
- Position: DM/MC
- Transfer Value: £30k-£4m
Dário Essugo is just 16 years of age, so it'll take a bit longer for him to develop into the superstar you're looking for. Still, with a bit of time and effort invested in him, you'll be able to harness his natural fitness and solid existing stats across the board to become a combative, unstoppable defensive midfielder in FM22.
Jude Bellingham
- Club: Borussia Dortmund
- Age: 18
- Position: MC
- Transfer Value: £87m-£104m
If you pay attention to real-world football, Jude Bellingham's presence here shouldn't come as a surprise. He's not going to be cheap, but when you have him signed up you won't regret it. At just 18 he's going to get better and better for years to come, either as a hard-working box-to-box player or more of a central playmaker for your team.
Ilaix Moriba
- Club: RB Leipzig
- Age: 18
- Position: MC
- Transfer Value: £80m-£96m
Want the extreme skill and potential of Bellingham but without the price tag that comes with getting an English player in? Well, Moriba isn't that much cheaper, but Leipzig's Guinean midfielder is destined to become absolutely world-class. His flair of 17 makes him a fun player to use, and with the technical skills he has at just 18, the sky is the limit.
Ivan Ilić
- Club: Verona
- Age: 20
- Position: MC/DM/AMC
- Transfer Value: £13.5m-£20m
Verona's Ivan Ilić is a slightly lower-cost option than the other CMs on this list. Far from being an outrageous bargain, he's still an affordable player for many top-flight clubs. His stats are great all-round, and allow him the flexibility to be a playmaker from however far up the pitch works for your tactic. What a player.
Luka Romero
- Club: Lazio
- Age: 16
- Position: AMC/AMR
- Transfer Value: £22m-£28m
Paying up to £25m for a 16 year old might seem a little over-the-top, but Luka Romero will only go from strength to strength. His natural fitness is 18 meaning he'll be a high performer constantly with far lower likelihood of injury or slowing down later on in his career, and with a bit of training you can make him the perfect playmaking number 10 for your team.
Hugo Félix
- Club: SLB
- Age: 17
- Position: AMC/MC
- Transfer Value: £750k-£1.6m
Hugo Félix is a much lower-cost option than a lot of his contemporaries. Benfica will be desperate to sign him up to a long-term deal with a ridiculous release clause, but if you can snap him up before then you'll have a real talent on your hands. He needs nurturing, and if you can afford it a fellow countryman in the dressing room will help a lot with such a young player, but Félix has everything it takes to become a great.
Bruno Iglesias
- Club: R. Madrid B
- Age: 18
- Position: AMC
- Transfer Value: £1.2m-£9.8m
Real Madrid have a wealth of astounding talent in midfield that they're unlikely to make the best of every one of them. Julen Jon Guerrero and Reinier both fall into this category too, but Bruno Iglesias is the one I'll focus on here. He's reasonably priced, has a contract running out in a couple of years, and most importantly, he's versatile. At just 18, you could fully retrain Iglesias as a left-winger if you fancied.
Thiago Almada
- Club: Vélez
- Age: 20
- Position: AMC
- Transfer Value: £5.6m-£8.2m
We couldn't have a list of wonderkids without an Argentinian, right? Almada currently plays for Vélez, out in the Argentine first division, but you should be able to get him for a pretty good price if you play your cards right. Even if you play them wrong, the maximum you'll be charged is his release clause of £21.5m. A great technical midfielder, Almada should be able to slot right into your team with relative ease.
More Great Young Midfielders
- Nicolò Rovella (DM)
- Rafael Luís (DM)
- Nicolas Seiwald (DM)
- Eduardo Camavinga (MC)
- Dominik Szoboszlai (MC)
- Takuhiro Nakai (MC)
- Rayan Cherki (AMC)
- Florian Wirtz (AMC)
- Burak İnce (AMC)
- Jamal Musiala (AMC)
Topics: Football Manager, Gaming