With all football effectively still in lockdown its been difficult to think of posts to keep the blog ticking over. When the news came out this week that the UEFA Youth League is postponed until March 2021 it gave me an idea.
In this post I’ll look at the UEFA Youth League “stars” in terms of goals scored. At the top there are three players on fifteen goals and the all players featured have scored at least ten.
Charlie Brown (Chelsea) – Signed from Ipswich town as a sixteen year old Charlie turned 21 a week ago. Twelve of his goals came in season 2018/19 when he finished as the season’s top scorer. Yet to make a first team appearance at Chelsea he moved to Belgian second division side Royal Union Saint Gilloise in January. He only made three appearances before the season came to a premature end and has returned to the Belgian club for the coming season.
Borja Mayoral (Real Madrid) – Scored seven goals in the 2014 competition and made his senior debut for Real Madrid B three months short of his eighteenth birthday. In October 2015 he made his La Liga debut as a substitute against UD Las Palmas. At the start of 2016/17 season he was loaned to VfL Wolfsburg, scoring twice in nineteen appearances.
Back at Real in 2017/18 season he scored seven goals in twenty four appearances across all competitions. The next two seasons was spent on loan at Levante, eleven goals in sixty-three appearances and returned to Real this summer. Now aged twenty-three he came on as a sub in Real’s most recent game against Real Betis. He has been strongly linked with Roma this transfer window.
Roberto Nunez (Atletico Madrid) – Roberto mainly played with Atletico’s B & C teams but did make his debut as a sub in a Copa del Rey game against CD Guijeulo. He left Atletico at the start of 2017/18 season for Royal Antwerp in Belgium, but a season with only a couple of cup appearances saw a return to Spain with Las Palmas. For the last two seasons he has turned out for Las Palmas Atletico, the reserve team. He was released at the end of the season and is now a free agent.
A couple of Chelsea players who will be familiar to most are just behind in the scoring lists. Tammy Abraham is now pretty much part of the Chelsea squad and a current England International. He benefited from loan spells at Bristol City, Swansea City and Aston Villa before establishing himself at Chelsea.
Dominic Solanke made his Chelsea debut in the Uefa Champions League against NK Maribor. Top scorer in the 2014/15 Uefa Youth League scoring in the final when Chelsea beat Shakhtar Donestk. A loan spell at Vitesse Arhem followed.On his contract expiry he opted to join Liverpool with a tribunal setting the fee around £3 million. Despite twenty+ appearances he never became a regular and was transferred to Bournemouth for a reported £19 million. Played in Bournemouth’s three Championship games this season scoring once.
A couple of nineteen year olds are in the early days at their clubs but making progress. Liverpool’s Curtis Jones was in double figures in terms of appearances last season and has already caught the eye this season. Goncalo Ramos at Benfica is a wee bit behind, only recently making his first team debut as a late sub against Aves.
There are also another couple of players who their Uefa Youth League clubs haven’t given up on and are currently out on loan. Napoli’s Gianluca Gaetano has broke into the top team but has been on loan at Serie B Cremonese since January. Diogo Goncalves who had a loan spell at Nottingham Forest is still on Benfica’s books but is on loan at Portuguese top tier side Famalicao.
A few players on the list may have moved on but still would be considered to be playing at the top level. Jean Kevin Augustin who scored his goals for PSG has recently joined Leeds United on loan from RB Leipzig. Seville’s Munnir El Haddadi scored his goals for Barcelona but declined a new contact and moved to Seville in January 2019. Another Barcelona graduate Carles Perez moved to Roma on loan in January and made the move permanent this summer for €11 million.
The next group of players have again moved on but are still playing in top level leagues. Timur Zhamaletdinov scored goals for CSKA Moscow, benefited from a loan spell in Poland with Lech Poznan and is now back in the Russian top division with FC Ufa. Another Russian Ivan Ignatyev is playing for Rubin Kazan having scored in the Uefa Youth League for Krasnodar. Dani Gomez never got beyond the B Team at Real Madrid but following a loan spell at second tier CD Tenerife, he signed a five year contract with La Liga side Levante UD. A couple of top team appearances and a loan move to FC Groningen was the grounding for Kaj Sierhuis move to Ligue One and Reims for €4 million in the summer.
Two players have slipped into second tier football but are still playing at a good level. Brother of Chelsea’s Michy Batshuayi, Arron Leya Iseka scored the goals when at Anderlecht where he did make the first team but since June 2018 he has been at Toulouse in the French second division. Although Jordi Mboula never made the Barcelona first team he reached double figures when he moved to AS Monaco. He recently returned to Spain signing a four year contract at second division Real Mallorca.
Quite an impressive list with only Roberto Nunez, ironically one of the three players on fifteen goals, struggling to remain at a good level.
Rangers Youths 
October 3, 2020 at 8:32 am
Yes its pretty grim, TV football and horseracing just about keeping me going.
October 2, 2020 at 6:01 pm
Good post bud, much appreciated..you must be demented with no Youth football