World ranking of the TOP20 most promising youngsters - CIES Football Observatory

CIES Football Observatory lists the 200 U20 players in 75 leagues around the world (20 in each of the ten positions considered) who have accumulated the most official game experience during last year.

The highest score overall was recorded for Barcelona’s prodigy Gavi, whose relative experience capital is 4.37 times higher than the average measured for players of the same age and position.

The CIES Football Observatory is a research group within the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES), an independent study centre located in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The CIES Football Observatory specialises in the statistical analysis of football. It was created in 2005 by Dr. Raffaele Poli and Dr. Loïc Ravenel.

The top players by position are Plamen Andreev (Levski Sofia, goalkeeper), António Silva (Benfica, centre back), Alejandro Balde (Barcelona, left back), Rico Lewis (Manchester City, right back), Arthur Vermeeren (Royal Antwerp, defensive midfielder), Pablo Gavi (Barcelona, central midfielder), Bilal El Khannouss (KRC Genk, attacking midfielder), Matheus Martins (Watford, left winger), Ângelo Gabriel (Santos, right winger) and Marcos Leonardo (Santos, centre-forward)

The ranking was established according to the experience capital method, taking into account the minutes played in official games during the last 365 days, the sporting level of the matches and the results. Furthermore, the experience capital was related to the average measured for players of the same age and position, which allows us to present a relative score as mentioned above.

You can check the full list here.