Premier League leaders Manchester City are carrying the flag of England ahead of the pack in this year’s nearly-released NXGN2022 list of the top 50 footballers across the globe aged 19 and under.
Of the fifty players that made the annual list thanks to outlet Goal, twelve are either currently plying their trade in the top flight of English football, while eight are of English nationality regarding who they represent at the international level.
No other nation was more heavily represented than England, with Brazil and France each offering five representatives while Germany and Spain featured four apiece. It once again showed just how strongly youth development has come on in England in recent years, and the potential notion that top-level clubs across the Premier League may once reach a point where they no longer need to scour the continental countryside for elite-level youngsters.
Top Countries repped in the @goal NXGN 2022 list:
🏴 – 8 (Shoretire, Gordon, Carney, Colwill, Patino, Delap, Elliott, Jude)
🇧🇷 – 5 (Endrick, Kaiky, Kayky, Marcos Leonardo, Matheus Franca)
🇫🇷 – 5 (Gourna, Michut, Gusto, Cherki, Cho)
🇪🇸 – 4
🇩🇪 – 4
🇺🇸 – 3
🇳🇱 – 3Cutoff – 1/1/2003.
— Football Wonderkids (@fbwonderkids) March 22, 2022
That list includes Liverpool sensation Harvey Elliot after he has come on remarkably well at Anfield both pre and post-serious injury, being ranked fifth on the overall list. Reds winger Kaide Gordon also featured (40), while Arsenal and Manchester United also chimed in with one English entry each.
Though starlet Liam Delap was the only English player to feature from Manchester City, Pep Guardiola’s outfit did offer the largest contingent from a Premier League representative on the list. Both Brazilian wonderkid Kayky, as well as Belgian midfielder Roméo Lavia, featured in the top-25 though neither are products of City’s academy set up.
England star Jude Bellingham gets top NXGN honor
For the second time in the last four seasons, an England youngster plying his trade for German giants Borussia Dortmund has been awarded the top spot in the annual NXGN list, this time, former Birmingham City academy standout Jude Bellingham being the player to receive the highest recognition.
Dortmund’s English midfielder Jude Bellingham and Dortmund’s English midfielder Jadon Sancho (R) are seen during the German first division Bundesliga football match between Arminia Bielefeld and Borussia Dortmund on October 31, 2020 in Bielefeld, western Germany. (Photo by Ina FASSBENDER / POOL / AFP) / DFL REGULATIONS PROHIBIT ANY USE OF PHOTOGRAPHS AS IMAGE SEQUENCES AND/OR QUASI-VIDEO (Photo by INA FASSBENDER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
England teammate and current Manchester United winger Jadon Sancho won the same award during the 2018-19 season where he produced a brilliant campaign for the Bundesliga outfit, scoring 12-goals and adding 18-assists in 34-appearances in Germany that season.
Bellingham is not only highly thought of in Germany but in England as well, though recently Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate went on record stating Liverpool midfielder Curtin Jones was pushing the Dortmund star for a place in the England setup, as well as Conor Gallagher and Jacob Ramsey.
“They are both pushing Jude (Bellingham), who has been in our squad for a while. Those two are really pushing Jude, there’s no doubt about that, and pushing some of the older players in that group as well.”
“That’s an area where Curtis Jones is also emerging at Liverpool. There are some good attacking midfield players that are good at pressing the opposition and look like they can take goals as well.”
Despite potential questions being thrown into the mix regarding the immediate England future of Bellingham, the Stourbridge-native remains a key piece of the puzzle under Marco Rose in the Ruhr valley this season, making 37-appearances across all competitions while chipping in with 6-goals and 13-assists in the process.
