Just Because They’re Young, It Doesn’t Mean These Players Won’t Make A Huge Impact On The 2022 World Cup
The 2022 Soccer World Cup is creeping closer and closer. And we cannot wait.
You can find the best sports betting spreads on this tournament here.
At each World Cup, they give out an award to the Best Young Player – also known as the Wonderkid award. This award is given to the most impressive player under the age of 21.
The first winner of this award was Pele and other winners include Thomas Muller and Paul Pogba.
The winner is voted for by the public via the FIFA World Cup website. Voters choose between a handful of options picked out by FIFA.
Today, we are going to be looking at 5 players that could be taking home this award this year.
#5 – Neco Willaims (Wales)
Wales knocked out Ukraine in June to make it to their first World Cup tournament for 64 years. It was pretty impressive for a country where football isn’t even their national sport.
Wales has a good amount of senior players who can come with major tournaments – notably Gareth Bale, as well as Aaron Ramsey, Chris Gunter, and Wanye Hennesey. They were all key players in the team that made it to the semi-finals of the Euros in 2016.
Neco Williams wasn’t old enough to be part of that tournament, but he was part of their Final 16 Euros 2020 team.
Williams has had an amazing season with Fullam this season and has just been bought for $17 million by the newly promoted Nottingham Forest.
So far, he’s only scored two goals for Wales but with the team expected to make it out of the group stages this year, we could see him shine.
#4 – Jude Bellingham (England)
England is a young team and we know that they have the potential to get far in tournaments. They came second overall in last year’s Euros.
With players like Markus Rashford, Jordan Sancho, and Bukayo Saka it was hard to narrow down the best young player on this team.
However, we have picked 19 year old Jude Bellingham – who is one of the only players in the squad who doesn’t play domestically in England. Bellingham currently plays for Borussia Dortmund. He came second in the Kopa Trophy (Best Young Player as voted for by previous Ballon d’Or winners) in 2021.
We know that one club tried to buy him for $80 million this year and Borussia Dortmund said no.
#3 – Karim Adeyemi (Germany)
Let’s talk about another young Borussia Dortmund player – Karim Adeyemi.
For many years, people have been saying that the German team is too old and many people give this as a reason for their disappointing Euros last year. We don’t think this is entirely fair.
Just look at the German domestic league and you will see young, thriving homegrown talent. Karim Adeyemi is a perfect example of this.
Adeyemi has been on loan to Liefering for the last two years and has scored 15 goals in 35 appearances.
He made his debut for the German Senior team in September 2021. He has played 4 games for them and has already scored an impressive goal. He really is one to watch at this tournament.
The whole team has a lot to prove so expect a lot from them in Qatar.
#2 – Pape Matar Sarr (Senegal)
Senegal has had a very good year in 2022. They are fresh from their win at AFROCON (African Cup Of Nations). They’ve played 12 games this year and only lost once (to Egypt).
One of the rising stars in their team is Pape Matar Sarr.
Sarr is only 19 and currently on loan with Metz from Tottenham. He has put in an amazing season in the top French league this year, where the competition has been fierce.
Matar Sarr plays in the Middlefield, so you probably won’t see him scoring many goals. But he is a powerful force on the field. He sets up goals, he offers support to his defense, and he is always causing problems for his opponents.
Senegal is Africa’s best hope for bringing the trophy home this year and Pape Matar Sarr could help them do that.
#1 – Eduardo Camavinga (France)
The bookies have France and Brazil as the joint most likely to win the World Cup this year.
Brazil has a whole range of amazing younger and older players that we could have spoken about today, but just don’t have time to.
France is the current World Cup champion although they were knocked out of the Final 16 by Switzerland. It is also worth noting that France has won Best Young Player for the last two tournaments in a row.
Eduardo Camavinga has the potential to be something really special for France.
He is the youngest goal scorer for his country for over 100 years. Real Madrid has him valued at over $40 million. And he is regularly getting playing time for the team. At 19 he already has a champions league title to his name.
Could he be adding the World Cup to that?
