10 of the best Football Manager 27 wonderkids – including future Chelsea & Arsenal stars

Football Manager 27 has released its early access and that means that we’ve embarked on our favourite digital pastime – searching the database for some of the best wonderkids we can sign in our saves.

With no access to FM27’s editor at the time of writing, we can’t see the numbers which govern the potential of the game’s brightest talents just yet, but there are other ways to get a handle on which young superstars we need to send our scouts to watch.

We spun a number of saves between eight and 10 years into the future to find out which players consistently wound up being world class. The way FM’s system works is such that some players will shine in one save but fail to hit the heights in the next, but when players keep coming good it’s a pretty good sign that they’re set up to become the best of the best.

Here, then, are 10 players worth checking out the second you start your first save. We’ve chosen to exclude players who are already first-team regulars at top teams in real life – nobody needs to be told that Lamine Yamal turns out to be quite handy, after all – but we’ve not worried about how obtainable any of them are. These are simply the best wonderkids that you might not yet be familiar with.

Chelsea starlet among FM27’s best wonderkids

Dastan Satpayev – Chelsea (current age 18, £19.5m minimum starting transfer value): Satpayev joined Chelsea from Qairat this summer, and is currently on loan at Burnley in the real world. In the game, however, he’ll end up in some rather more glamorous destinations. The Kazakh was the best striker in the world by the time he hit his mid-twenties in almost all of our saves, and it generally wasn’t close. Worth just about any sum if you can persuade Chelsea to sell him, based on what we’ve seen

Noahkai Banks – Augsburg (19, £23m): A centre-back who consistently becomes one of the very best at his position. In every one of our saves, Banks became a physical powerhouse with immense pace to boot, and in most of them he became one of the best all-round technical defenders as well. He’s a regular starter in the Bundesliga from the beginning as a 19-year-old, so he won’t come cheap, but he shouldn’t be unobtainable for bigger teams.

Matteo Palma – Udinese (18, £27m): The real Palma is slowly establishing himself as a starter at Udinese right now, and in the game he went far in almost all of our saves. His exceptional physical stats stand out time and again, and his technical and mental numbers tended to be more than good enough to make him a top-tier centre-half who can also play at full-back. Definitely worth investing in, although if you only sign one centre-back – make it Banks, based on what we’ve seen.

Mikkel Bro Hansen – PSV (17, £14.5m): The real-life 17-year-old signed for PSV in the summer, so you probably won’t be able to get hold of him immediately, but the Danish striker is worth keeping tabs on nonetheless. Quick, hard-working and with exceptional finishing and movement, Bro Hansen scored an awful lot of goals in most of our saves, tended to pick up plenty of assists, and didn’t have any meaningful weaknesses in any of them.

Mattia Liberali – Como (19, £325k): A pacy attacking midfielder who winds up with so many good stats in so many key areas that he’s just as good as a winger as he is as a number 10, and you could probably convert him into a damned good striker as well. He always ended up being lightning quick, and usually ended up at a big club for a very large transfer fee. Another player who only just moved in real life, so you’ll probably have to wait to snap him up.

Future Arsenal man another of FM27’s brightest young talents

Abdellah Ouazane – Ajax (17, £29m): You can copy and paste the analysis for Liberali here, but Ouazane tended to end up being even better even if Liberali is the quicker of the two. The Moroccan starlet tends to up as a world-class player with no meaningful weaknesses. Ajax won’t sell cheap, but he’s worth his weight in gold.

Edwin Quintero – Independiente del Valle (17, £275k): In both the game and in real life, the teenage Quintero has already agreed to join Arsenal when he turns 18. And if he turns out to be as good at the Emirates as is he is the game, then the Gunners will be absolutely thrilled with this particular piece of business. A lethal right winger with towering scores in all the right places in all of our saves, Quintero won’t be easy to sign early on – but he’s destined for the stars. His twin brother Holger, who’s also joining Arsenal, typically becomes a handy midfielder too.

Demir Ege Tiknaz – Braga (22, £27m): Tiknaz is 21 at the start of a typical save, so we’ll squeeze the defensive midfielder into the wonderkids section even if he’s a bit borderline on the age front. In most of our saves, Tiknaz ended up being a superb passer with excellent technique and the kind of mental stats every FM manager knows to seek out at every possible opportunity. An incredibly reliable and consistent performer, from everything we’ve seen.

Assan Ouédraogo – RB Leipzig (20, £82m): Given that Ouédraogo made 20 appearances for one of the Bundesliga’s biggest teams last year we feel we might be stretching our self-imposed rules a bit here, but he isn’t especially well-known to a general audience. A piratical number 10 with pace, flair, and equally brilliant passing and dribbling, Ouédraogo ended up at one of the world’s top teams in every one of our saves. Great mental stats, too. A definite superstar.

Tylel Tati – Nantes (18, £11.5m): A tall and aerially dominant centre-back who repeatedly wound up with Real Madrid after a few years in our simulations. He tended to end up as a solid technician rather than a great one, but he was such a powerhouse that it seldom made much difference and he was typically a very consistent performer. If you can get him cheap and need an old-fashioned centre-back to prop up your defence for years to come, you couldn’t do much better.