- 17 hours ago
The 20 Spain youngsters with the most potential
Martin Macdonald
- 21 Oct 2022 14:57 BST
Spain remain one of the elite footballing nations in the world and one of the major reasons for their continued success is their ability to produce outstanding young players.
This has been underlined by the fact that Gavi picked up the 2022 Golden Boy award, and it is therefore fitting that he is also the Spanish player with the greatest potential aged 21 or under, according to SciSports.
The Barcelona midfielder has taken over the mantle from team-mate Pedri, who has dropped to second in the ranking. Both players are considered among the most promising midfielders in the world game and come through an academy that has earned a reputation for creating some of the best technical players in history.
Coming in third is promising Villarreal winger Yeremy Pino. At youth level, Yeremi was at Huracan and Las Palmas before joining Villarreal in 2017. At that time, he reportedly had the opportunity to sign for Barcelona but turned the Blaugrana down. The fact Barcelona were so keen to sign him in his mid-teens provides an indication of what type of player he is.
Barca dominate the leading players, with the top five rounded out by Eric Garcia and Ansu Fati.
| Player | Parent Club | Potential SciSports Skill |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Gavi | Barcelona | 145.7 |
| 2. Pedri | Barcelona | 140.1 |
| 3. Yeremy Pino | Villarreal | 129.7 |
| 4. Eric Garcia | Barcelona | 118.2 |
| 5. Ansu Fati | Barcelona | 116.8 |
| 6. Unai Vencedor | Athletic Bilbao | 111.7 |
| 7. Nico Williams | Athletic Bilbao | 107.4 |
| 8. Arnau Martinez | Girona | 107.4 |
| 9. Ander Barrenetxea | Real Sociedad | 105.9 |
| 10. Alejandro Balde | Barcelona | 102.5 |
| 11. Nico Gonzalez | Valencia (loan from Barcelona) | 98.2 |
| 12. Fer Nino | Villarreal | 98.1 |
| 13. Bryan Gil | Tottenham | 96.9 |
| 14. Stefan Bajcetic | Liverpool | 94.2 |
| 15. Mahamadou Susoho | Manchester City | 94.1 |
| 16. Nico Melamed | Espanyol | 93.1 |
| 17. Alberto Moleiro | Las Palmas | 93.0 |
| 18. Alvaro Fernandez | Preston (loan from Man Utd) | 92.6 |
| 19. Alvaro Leiva | Real Madrid | 91.8 |
| 20. Alex Baena | Villarreal | 91.1 |
How is the SciSkill ranking calculated?
SciSports explains how our development ratings are gathered:
“Among others, a positive development could be boosted by more playing time, playing time on a higher level or better performances on the pitch.
“A negative development could be due to the player being active on a lower level than he used to play, bad performances or the fact that he does not play that often as he used to do.
“A SciSkill Development of 0.0 could indicate that a player is performing exactly like our algorithm expects him to do. Another reason could be inactivity (e.g. a long-term injury or suspension).”
