What happened to the 14 wonderkids who Marca tipped to dominate football in 2018
The Spanish outlet made some bold picks when predicting the biggest upcoming talents.
Back in 2018, Marca named 14 young footballers who could become future stars, but where are they seven years later?
As football continues to become bigger and bigger across the world, fans have tipped dozens of players to be the next big up and coming star.
While some have certainly go on to each the very top of the sport, others don't quite reach the heights that they were once expected to.
And this is certainly the case for some of a 2018 list of the greatest young future stars across football.
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Marca's list boasts some impressive predictions, with the likes of Vinicius Junior, Phil Foden and Rodrygo all included.
But the Spanish outlet also included several lesser-known names that perhaps haven't reached the heights of someone like Vinicius, here are a selection of their picks and details of their careers.
Moise Kean
Tipped by Marca to become "the next Balotelli," Kean has had an interesting career.
The Italian started off at Juventus and quickly established himself as one of the most exciting young talents in the sport, leading to Everton signing him on a five-year deal for a reported fee of an initial fee of £25.1m that could rise to £27.5m.
However, Kean failed to live up to expectations at Everton, leading to him being sent on loan spells to both Paris Saint-Germain and former club Juventus.
Eventually, after scoring just four goals in 39 appearances for Everton, Kean was sold back to Juventus for £25m, before later joining Fiorentina last summer.
Abel Ruiz
Ruiz unfortunately is one of the few talents to come out of the Barcelona academy and not quite make it to the heights that he was once thought to be capable of reaching.
Shortly before Marca's list was published, Ruiz made his first-team debut, scoring the winning penalty in a shootout against Espanyol in the Supercopa de Catalunya.
But his Barcelona career didn't progress much further than this, and the striker was eventually sold to Portuguese side SC Braga in 2020.
Last summer, the Spaniard returned to his home country after signing a five-year deal with La Liga club Girona.
Willem Geubbels
Geubbels started his career at Lyon's academy and went on to become the first player born in the 21st century to appear in Ligue 1.
The Frenchman later went on to become youngest player ever to make a Europa League debut and was highly sought after at Marca's time of writing.
On 19 June 2018, the forward signed a new deal with fellow French side Monaco for a reported fee of €20m (£16.5m).
Unfortunately, he didn't live up to the hype at his new club and made only 17 appearances before joining current club St. Gallen in January 2023, signing a 2.5 year deal with the Swiss club.
Jann-Fiete Arp
According to Marca, Arp was "called on to do great things things with Germany and Hamburg," but the 25-year-old is yet to impress.
Arp came up through the Hamburger SV youth academy and went on to make 38 appearances for the German club before securing a big move to Bayern Munich in 2019.
However, the forward made just one appearance for the Bundesliga giants, with injuries and Joshua Zirkzee keeping him out of rotation.
Arp spent most of his time in Munich representing the club's secondary team, but later joined current club Holstein Kiel in 2022.
He is yet to make a senior appearance for the German national team.
Marca's list in full:
Vinicius Junior
Victor Mollejo
Abel Ruiz
Moise Kean
Ferran Torres
Jadon Sancho
Phil Foden
Willem Geubbels
Moise Kean
Pietro Pellegri
Ethan Ampadu
Jann-Fiete Arp
Timothy Weah
Rodrygo
Sergio Gomez
Topics: Football
Ben McCrum