In 2021, as every year, we picked 80 players from around the world who had a chance of making it in world football – 20 from the Premier League and 60 from the rest of the world – as part of our Next Generation series. We then follow these talented boys on their journeys for five years. Often it is almost impossible to predict how they will get on (OK, when Sid Lowe sent over Lamine Yamal in 2024 we had an inkling he might do well).
Five years ago we had an exciting array of young players on the list, most of them 17 years old but some 16, with one youngster from Brighton being profiled like this: The ball-playing central midfielder comes from a footballing family and academy staff believe his tactical awareness is born from growing up around the game. His father, Adam, played for Brighton and is now manager along the coast at Worthing FC, while Martin (his great uncle), Paul (his grandad), and Wally (his great grandad), all enjoyed careers as players. It was quite an understated entry, especially compared with this one in the world section: The youngest to play in the Bundesliga at 16 years and one day, youngest player to appear in the Champions League 17 days later, youngest goal scorer in Bundesliga 11 days after that and youngest player and youngest goal scorer for the Germany Under-21 team before he has turned 17.
Borussia Dortmund’s Youssoufa Moukoko went on to play for Germany at the World Cup the following year, at the same time as Jack Hinshelwood was promoted to the Brighton Under-21s. Different trajectories, different pressures. Moukoko was already known around the world and tipped for a long career at the top.
There was something completely carefree about his style, young Michael Owen-esque. Take a look at his early (and subsequent) goals in the Bundesliga here. Moukoko sustained some injuries and struggled to make the Dortmund starting XI.
To be fair, he also had some decent competition up front as Erling Haaland had arrived in 2020. Moukoko had a really good spell at the start of the 2022-23 season, after Haaland had joined Manchester City, but sustained an ankle ligament tear and never quite got his starting place back. These days Moukoko is playing in the Turkish top flight with Corum, on loan from Copenhagen, where he moved in 2025.
His switch to the newly promoted Turkish top-flight side was low key with the club welcoming Moukoko to the “family” with a short statement. He is yet to start a game but his cameos off the bench have offered flashes of his quality – most notably marking his home debut with a sharp assist in a 3–0 win over Eyüpspor. His market value is €5m (£4m) reckons transfermarkt.com.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
