What Ever Happened to the Lads of the 2015 U20 World Cup in NZ? (Part 1 – The Internationals)
The 2017 FIFA Under 20 WorLd Cup is coming up, get excited. We’ve already looked over the New Zealand squad that’ll be there and there’s plenty else worth catching an interest in as well. The tourney’s being held in South Korea and ought to feature some of the finest young footy players on the planet. It’s always a fascinating competition… although you already know that because New Zealand hosted the last one.
Ah yes, what an outstanding spectacle it was too. Angel Correa looked magnificent for Argentina but then the Junior Pumas buggered up and didn’t even make it out of their group. Brazil, meanwhile, featuring a certain Gabriel Jesus, were scoring goals all over the show as they rolled through their group with three wins from three. Germany beat Fiji 8-1… but then Fiji bounced back with an incredible 3-0 win over Honduras in their next game. The Americans appeared strong but went out on penalties in the quarters to Serbia. Portugal the same until they lost on spotties to Brazil. The African sides were all impressive, Nigeria and Ghana had some quality wins, but it was Mali and Senegal who strolled all the way to the semis. Eventually it was Serbia that triumphed, a Nemanja Maksimovic goal with two minutes of extra time remaining the difference against Brazil in the final. Good fun all around.
Mali’s Adama Traore won the Golden Ball for the Player of the Tournament. Four goals and three assists can do that for ya, the attacking midfielder is currently on loan at Rio Ave in Portugal after signing with Monaco in the wake of that 2015 event. Ukraine’s Viktor Kovalenko won the Golden Boot with five goals. The Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder has seven goals for his club this season in 25 games.
Obviously not every country qualifies so not every top twenty year old out there features at the World Cup. And tournament footy being what it is, the most successful careers don’t often align with the best performances. Plus we’re only two removed so there’ll be full internationals who go on to do amazing things that still haven’t cracked their club sides on the regular yet. But a quick scan through those squad lists and there are plenty of guys who are already getting it done.
Lil Angel Correa has played 30 times for Atletico Madrid this season. 22 years old and he’s already played and scored for his country’s senior team and was an unused sub in last season’s Champions League final, also appearing in this latest edition’s semi-finals. Julian Brandt of Germany is a regular for Bayer Leverkusen and has five caps for Germany (as well as winning a silver medal at the 2016 Olympics). Dortmund’s Julian Weigl has also played for Germany a few times.
Scoring the goal in the final for Brazil was Andreas Pereira, of Manchester United, who has spent a successful season on loan with Granada. It’s across town at Manchester City that Gabriel Jesus (who was the youngest player in the Brazil squad then) has made a real splash since though. Five goals in eight Premier League games already and a handful of caps for the national team. City had a few faces in Aotearoa back then, actually. Kelechi Iheanacho was in the Nigerian squad along with Chidiebere Nwakali, who is one of those loan bird types, and Yaw Yeboah the same for Ghana (he’s been on a temporary with FC Twente playing pretty often in 16-17).
Back to Nigeria for a second, you might also recognise the names Isaac Success and Wilfred Ndidi after each of them made big money Premier League moves over the last 12 months. Success plays for Watford while Ndidi was the man tabbed to replace N’Golo Kante at Leicester City. Both played down here in New Zealand.
America had a bunch of exciting names. Gedion Zelalem is an Arsenal lad who’s spent time at Rangers and VVV-Venlo trying to make a name for himself that lives up to the potential while Matt Miazga transferred to Chelsea and is on loan at Vitesse. Emerson Hyndman moved from Fulham to Bournemouth at the start of this season though was loaned out to Rangers in January having only played in cup games ‘til then – where he was awarded Rangers’ Young Player of the Year despite only playing half a season there.
Davinson Sanchez of Colombia will probably be playing for Ajax in the Europa League final in a week’s time having recently been named the Player of the Year for the club at only 20 years old. Andre Silva, who scored in each of Portugal’s group stage matches, is polishing off a breakout season for Porto where he’s scored 20 goals in 2016-17 while Gelson Martins, who scored the goal that knocked New Zealand out, is a regular for Sporting Lisbon – both are full internationals. And Uruguay’s Gaston Pereiro is an Eredivisie champ with PSV Eindhoven.
As for the finest collection of young elite footy players on the planet right now, the 2016-17 Monaco side? They just spent some big bucks in January on bringing in Brazil’s Jorge while his 2015 WC compatriot Gabriel Boschilia signed there in the months after that World Cup – he did his ACL in February though, cutting his season well short (the team warmed up next game in ‘Forca Gabriel’ shirts). Ghanaian goalie Seydou Sy is a prospect there and Adama Traore’s already been mentioned. Not a bad haul and if France had been at NZ 2015 then you probably coulda doubled it.
And, finally, the champions. Several of them are already full internationals – one of them not even with Serbia, funnily enough. Stanisa Mandic got dropped from the Serbian U21 side and his club’s director wrote a public letter complaining about agent politics deciding these selections and Mandic, a month later, accepted the offer to play for Montenegro instead.
The bloke who scored the winner in the final, Maksimovic, now plays for Astana and has three caps for Serbia. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic is a regular for Lazio in Italy, he won the Bronze Ball at NZ 2015. Marko Grujic, you might recognise the name, is a squad fella for Liverpool who has a couple Premier League appearances this season although he’d have a lot more if it weren’t for a recurring hamstring thing. Jurgen Klopp likes him so much he personally called him up to convince him to sign at Anfield.
Tricky winger Andrija Zivkovic became Serbia’s youngest ever full international when he debuted in 2013 and he signed a five-year contract with Benfica before the last European season. His free kick against Mexico was voted the best goal of the tournament. Mijat Gacinovic plays for Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany now, Ivan Saponjic joined Benfica with Zivkovic, Milos Veljkovic is at Werder Bremen after leaving Tottenham in 2016 and Milan Gajic plies his trade with Bordeaux (where he’s teammates with Malcom, one of the Brazilians he beat in the final).
Give it another couple seasons and there’ll be a few more notables. There are already a couple more lads that could’ve been mentioned but, hey, point’s been made. Next time you see Manchester City play and Gabriel Jesus is up front doing prodigious things? Just remember that the guy’s played in New Zealand before. And if you were lucky enough to get to one of those games then you’ve even seen him play. There’s a story to tell ya mates down the pub.
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