Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Dele Alli, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Leroy Sane, Gabriel Jesus
John McDougall
Topics: Dele Alli, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Leroy Sane, Gabriel Jesus
Lists of the best players in the world for any given year crop up constantly - but one from 2016 of the greatest young stars on the globe at that time makes for interesting reading.
Popular football magazine FourFourTwo often produces lists of stars it feels are the best in the world, or in any given division.
Sometimes lists can age well, or can not turn out as well as was perhaps envisaged.
A list produced back in 2016 has re-emerged and it lists the the best 59 wonderkids in world football aged 21 and under.
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If you go through the list, there are several players who were plying their trade in the Premier League at the time or have gone on to play in the English top flight.
There are also those who have gone on to become true world starts, with a then 17-year-old striker playing for Monaco called Kylian Mbappe featuring at number 44 - wonder whatever happened to him?
Demarai Gray was named at number 53, with the then 20-year-old then playing for Leicester City, while fellow 20-year-old Andreas Christiansen was at Borussia Monchengladbach, on loan from Chelsea.
And then Arsenal youngster Alex Iwobi was tipped for big things at number 20.
Looking at the top 10, Ousmane Dembele was 19 and at Borussia Dortmund at the time, while a teenage Leroy Sane had just joined Manchester City and was ninth.
Marco Asensio was eighth as he was coming through the ranks at Real Madrid, while then Manchester United star Anthony Martial was seventh.
A 19-year-old Gabriel Jesus was sixth, with the Brazilian still at Palmeiras at the time and was due to join Man City in January 2017.
Going into the top five, United striker Marcus Rashford was fifth after bursting onto the scene in 2016.
A 17-year-old Gianluigi Donnarumma, who was then playing for AC Milan, is ranked fourth, while Renato Sanches, then of Bayern Munich, made the top three.
Fellow Bayern star Kingsley Coman was rated second, while Dele Alli was ranked number one after his exploits for Tottenham Hotspur and England, following a rapid rise in the game after moving from MK Dons.
Read the full list below:
FourFourTwo's 59 best young players in 2016
59. Jesus Vallejo, 19 (Eintracht Frankfurt, on loan from Real Madrid)
58. Thiago Maia, 19 (Santos)
57. Kasper Dolberg, 19 (Ajax)
56. Benjamin Henrichs, 19 (Bayer Leverkusen)
55. Jorge Meré, 19 (Sporting Gijon)
54. Andre Horta, 19 (Benfica)
53. Demarai Gray, 20 (Leicester)
52. Malcom, 19 (Bordeaux)
51. Leon Bailey, 20 (Genk)
50. Vincent Koziello, 20 (Nice)
49. Aleksandr Golovin, 20 (CSKA Moscow)
48. Adam Ounas, 20 (Bordeaux)
47. Predrag Rajkovic, 20 (Maccabi Tel Aviv)
46. Santi Mina, 20 (Valencia)
45. Jorge, 20 (Flamengo)
44. Kylian Mbappe, 17 (Monaco)
43. Oliver Burke, 19 (RB Leipzig)
42. Franck Kessie, 19 (Atalanta)
41. Bart Ramselaar, 20 (PSV)
40. Gonçalo Guedes, 19 (Benfica)
39. Issa Diop, 19 (Toulouse)
38. Enes Unal, 19 (FC Twente, on loan from Man City)
37. Maxwel Cornet, 19 (Lyon)
36. Riechedly Bazoer, 19 (Ajax)
35. Mikel Oyarzabal, 19 (Real Sociedad)
34. Santiago Ascacibar, 19 (Estudiantes)
33. Lucas Hernandez, 20 (Atletico Madrid)
32. Thomas Lemar, 20 (Monaco)
31. Mahmoud Dahoud, 20 (Borussia Monchengladbach)
30. Jean-Kevin Augustin, 19 (PSG)
29. Emre Mor, 19 (Borussia Dortmund)
28. Davinson Sanchez, 20 (Ajax)
27. Breel Embolo, 19 (Schalke)
26. Jairo Riedewald, 20 (Ajax)
25. Andreas Christensen, 20 (Borussia Monchengladbach, on loan from Chelsea)
24. Viktor Kovalenko, 20 (Shakhtar Donetsk)
23. Andre Silva, 20 (Porto)
22. Alex Iwobi, 20 (Arsenal)
21. Jonathan Tah, 20 (Bayer Leverkusen)
20. Ante Coric, 19 (Dinamo Zagreb)
19. Tin Jedvaj, 20 (Bayer Leverkusen)
18. Marlos Moreno, 20 (Deportivo La Coruna, on loan from Man City)
17. Timo Werner, 20 (RB Leipzig)
16. Youri Tielemans, 19 (Anderlecht)
15. Christian Pulisic, 18 (Borussia Dortmund)
14. Kelechi Iheanacho, 20 (Manchester City)
13. Julian Brandt, 20 (Bayer Leverkusen)
12. Giovani Lo Celso, 20 (Rosario Central, on loan from PSG)
11. Gabriel Barbosa, 20 (Inter Milan)
10. Ousmane Dembele, 19 (Borussia Dortmund)
9. Leroy Sané, 19 (Manchester City)
8. Marco Asensio, 20 (Real Madrid)
7. Anthony Martial, 20 (Manchester United)
6. Gabriel Jesus, 19 (Palmeiras, joined Man City in January 2017)
5. Marcus Rashford, 18 (Manchester United)
4. Gianluigi Donnarumma, 17 (Milan)
3. Renato Sanches, 19 (Bayern Munich)
2. Kingsley Coman, 20 (Bayern Munich)
1. Dele Alli, 20 (Tottenham)