8 young talents to keep an eye on in this Champions League

The wait is over: one hundred and twenty-three days after the Kiev's final between Real Madrid and Liverpool finally we will return to hear the Champions League jingle after a summer in which we were forced to settle for the preliminary round, moreover without any Italian team involved. Will it once again be an edition distinguished by the shows of CR7 & Messi or will we finally see a process of general rejuvenation of the main characters? Generational change or not, is a lot that we are in a fixed with the youngsters (by the way, have you already read our Top 15 of the most promising Italian players?). And therefore a few hours from the beginning of the tournament that we love we are focused on young surprises that could unexpectedly take the stage and shine across Europe. It was however necessary to make choices, so we decided to exclude in fact those who are young only according for their identity cards because on the international scene they have already made a proof to be veterans: it's for this reason that you will not find on our list people like Mbappè, Rashford, Alli, Pulisic and Asensio but only eight debutants on which you can bet (almost) without doubts. So, you just have to get comfortable and start to write our names, with the hope that it can serve to you to give the impression, in front of your friend, to be professional talent scouts.

Rodri

club: Atletico Madrid
age: 22
position: midfielder

The team coached by Simeone has the opportunity to play the final at home, at the Wanda Metropolitano, but continues to be a team absolutely undervalued by insiders: one of the reasons why they must be considered a globally power team is the entirety of all of its structure. In the midfield, in fact, there's a new arrival that is not a new face in Madrid: Rodrigo Hernandez Cascante is back home after the experience at Villarreal, lasted five years, during which he became a true midfielder. Tall and powerful, he is the major suspect to cover for years the role of low top (like Busquets, but he can shoot well) in the midfield of the colchoneros, regardless of the names and numbers of other players.

Jadon Sancho

club: Borussia Dortmund
age: 18
position: winger 

When we talk about Jadon Sancho we have in our mind the last article written on Soccerbible magazine: the young English wonderkid who was bought by Borussia Dortmund in summer 2017, and who immediately received the jersey number 7. During the last season the 2000 class matches were however quite rare, having been mainly used with youth squads, but its performance during 2018 has grown visibly and has immediately shown what is his potential: that's why we are convinced that this one could be the season of the definitive explosion. Also because the eighteen-year-old numbers speak for themselves: 14 games, 1 goal and 8 assists. The disappointing situation of the Borusssia Dortmund's offensive department could facilitate its exploit.

Gedson Fernandes 

club: Benfica
age: 19
position: midfielder

It's useless to remember how much is the specific weight of the young Portuguese players in today's football, and we are not referring only to Cristiano Ronaldo. The Lusitanian is a resource that seems practically infinite, and the constant presence of Porto and Benfica in the UCL does nothing but spray continuously: among the many interesting youngters we will see on the pitch (Renato Sanches, Diogo Dalot, Ruben Dias, Diogo Leite and Joao Felix above all) we have decided to reward Gedson Fernandes, the Cape Verdean midfielder of Benfica. He was born in 1999, he has already made his debut in the major national team and last month he shone during the preliminaries with the Eagles. A good European season could guarantee its club another record sell, considering that it has a buy out clause of 60 million euros.

Arthur

club: Barcelona
age: 22
position: midfielder

That of Barcelona was a small internal revolution, expecially because the Catalans had to say goodbye to a pillar of the midfield like Andres Iniesta (but also Paulinho and Andre Gomes went away), welcoming two new midfielders like Arturo Vidal and Arthur. In fact, we can not use the term 'replace' because we are dealing with completely different players than the former number 8, but certainly absolutely valid. Arthur, for example, is one of South America's most promising midfielders and Barça has had to spend around 30 million euros to beat the competition of many European clubs to buy the former Gremio, with which he won the 2017 Libertadores. So the expectations for the Brazilian playmaker (who goes to join the maxi carioca colony composed of Coutinho, Rafinha and Malcom), not only coming from the Barça fans, are absolutely legitimate. And we can not wait to see it at work.

Tanguy Ndombele

club: Olympique Lyonnnais
age: 22
position: midfielder

The French one is one of the most prosperous youth sector in all of Europe, and the fact that the club of President Aulas constantly relies on the potential of its youngsters is another proof of that. Enter at least one of the new Lyon's talents in our short list was really the minimum, but it was difficult to choose the most interesting profile: in the end we choose the dominant midfielder with Congolese descent, back from a season – the last - absolutely incredible. The trio that he composed with the two peers Houssem Aouar and Lucas Tousart is undoubtedly one of the reasons that will force us to watch with particular attention the highlights of the French team, included in the F group with Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk and Hoffenheim.

Frankie de Jong

club: Ajax
age: 21
position: midfielder

The 2018/2019 Champions League will see Ajax at the starting line and this makes us particularly happy, as the Dutch are used to employing young players with less hesitation. The last two champions in the making are without doubts Matthijs de Ligt and Frankie de Jong, a couple that we are sure will make long the fortunes of the Amsterdam club and the Orange national team. The 21-year-old Frenkie de Jong is the most fascinating profile: he is a very mature midfielder, who until last season even played as a centre back so he could start the action from the bottom, but above all it's really nice to see him playing. Is he the midfielder of the future? Will it be his last season with the Dutch team? Take a look at the European Ajax campaign and you will not regret it.

Steven Bergwijn

club: PSV
age: 20
position: winger

PSV Eindhoven have changed its technical lead (Cocu out, Van Bommel in) but the idea of ​​the team has remained practically the same: the Dutch champions are used to play with a 4-3-3 very airy and funny, but the group B (with Barça, Tottenham and Inter) it's really prohibitive. So all that remains is to rely on the unpredictability of its young talents: if we already know a bit about Hirving Lozano and Gaston Pereiro, and if the new arrival Erick Gutierrez maybe could take his time, then the real crack could be Steven Bergwijn, a Dutch wing of only twenty years old who knows how to play very fast on both sides of the offensive package and who remembers so much Memphis Depay. The 1997 class that the PSV snatched dell'Ajax at an early age did very well with the youth selections and is now awaiting the definitive increase in quality.

Eder Militão

club: Porto
age: 20
position: centre/right back

Group D is undoubtedly the one with the most unknown factors, or even the one in which any team would have liked to be drawn: between Lokomotiv Moscow, Porto, Schalke 04 and Galatasaray it is hard to establish a hierarchy of values ​​before the beginning. The umpteenth affordable yet to be played by Porto, could say someone, but the truth that the Super Dragões are no longer those of a few years ago: forced to continue sales, the Lusitan team this year have lost so many good players and had to replace them betting on semi-unknown ones: among these should be reported this Brazilian right-back who also knows how to play as a centre back, which is twenty years old and comes from San Paolo and on which there were the eyes of a lot of clubs across Europe. Even for him the Champions will be a unique opportunity to show off, as a debutants.