I’m a bit cynical about these sorts of things as it makes for a great story to say “this is the next Messi” when really it’s just a very talented 10 year old who has a much better chance of being a ‘really good’ 18 year old than being anything close to a starter with Barcelona.
Still, Takefusa Kubo, a ten year old from Japan has moved to Spain with his mom so he can join the famous La Masia academy at Barcelona.
His first game for the Barcelona youth team seems to have been treated as a fairly major media event. Here’s the video:
He notched two goals (shown from two different angles) so that seems to be enough to fuel the media fire for now. Nice story and I hope he does well but putting labels on ten year olds like “Japanese Messi” is all a bit silly.
These players rarely ever last it out. Unless , of course, your name is Sol Campbell….
It would be interesting to collate how highly regarded today’s top players around the world were considered when they were 8 years old, 12 years old and 16 years old. Wonder how many were destined for the big leagues when they were as young as this kid.
To date, Sol Campbell only player to play England School Boy U14 and up through system to Full cap and top flight career…..
Ryan Giggs could probably share that distinction in a way as he played England school boys before playing for Wales as his nation of birth. ?? On Wikipedia though it says he played England u16 not “school boys” and I can’t be bothered to do more research into it. So maybe not….
I seem to remember an article a few years back using Sol Campbell as an example of how overtraining as a youth prodigy may contribute to more injuries as an adult player – at least he got a professional contract. Just a quick search to see if I could find the article and I found this recent article from The Independent, which also seems on point.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/john-megicks-too-much-too-young-for-prodigy-6269225.html
Colin, what about Joe Cole? – he was another one that I remember always having the label “child prodigy” in his very early days.
Ronaldinho was something of a child prodigy I believe as well. Regardless…very few!