A 2016 best XI of wonderkids has gone viral on social media – and nine of them have managed to reach the heights expected in the game.
But one English-born ace has gone under the radar and now plies his trade for an unfashionable German outfit.
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Spanish newspaper Marca, who put together the best XI of Under-18 talents in Europe back eight years ago.
Among them was one rather unknown player at the time that was cutting his teeth at Monaco called Mbappe, who is now considered by many as the best in the world.
The Real Madrid superstar was joined by former Paris Saint-Germain team-mate Gianluigi Donnarumma in goal.
Donnarumma had just taken football by storm with AC Milan before moving to PSG in 2021.
Cristian Manea was placed at right-back with Arsenal‘s ace Kieran Tierney on the other side, while Liverpool’s Joe Gomez was linked up with forgotten England prospect Reece Oxford at centre-back.
Rapid Bucharest’s Manea was playing for Belgian outfit Mouscron, on loan from Apollon Limassol, but got lost in the shuffle as did Oxford, who was a revelation at West Ham before joining Augsburg.
Gomez has yet to establish himself as a starting defender for the Reds, while Tierney’s success at Celtic has yet to be replicated at the Emirates due to a raft of injury set-backs.
Renato Sanches, Youri Tielemans and Ruben Neves formed the midfield.
Sanches was considered the next big thing during his successful stint at Benfica but ended up being swapped around and failed to live up to expectations, while also enduring a painful stint at Swansea.
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The midfielder is currently in PSG’s books but returned to the Portuguese giants on loan in his bid to rediscover his old form.
Tielemans played for Anderlecht at the time and went on to enjoy success with Leicester where he won the FA Cup and current club Aston Villa who are standing out in the Champions League.
Neves burst onto the scene with Porto and became a star at Wolves but has dropped from the spotlight after moving to Saudi Arabia for Al-Hilal.
Mbappe was joined by Martin Odegaard and Dominic Solanke up front.
Odegaard was struggling for minutes at Real after his major move from Norwegian outfit Stromsgodset, where he emerged as one of the world’s most promising wonderkids.
But the playmaker found his groove at Arsenal and quickly earned the captain’s armband.
Solanke played for Vitesse at the time on loan from Chelsea, where he failed to earn a permanent spot and endured a disappointing stint at Liverpool.
But the striker showed exactly why there was so much hype around his name with a stunning spell at Bournemouth, which led to a big move to Tottenham last summer.
Mixed fan reaction
And of course Mbappe dominated at Monaco and earned a big move to PSG where he quickly developed into one of the world’s biggest stars and ultimately completed a highly-anticipated move to Real.
Fans were left in awe by that nostalgic post, which received some mixed reaction.
One fan posted: “Pretty good tbf.”
Another commented: “I miss Kieran Tierney.”
A third wrote: “As a West Ham fan, Reece Oxford not fulfilling his potential was so sad.”
This fan wrote: “9 out of the 11 are top tier.”
And that one stated: “Not a bad return to be fair.”
