The Wonderkid Power Rankings: Man City starlet blasts his way back into the top ten

When we put the Wonderkid Power Rankings together last week, we described it as the best week of performances from football’s finest young talents that we’d seen yet. This week might be one of the worst, at least in terms of tangible results – just two of last week’s top ten followed up their big recent performances with goals this time around.

Still, there were a couple of cracking strikes and that rather quiet week leaves room for a new face and sees one Manchester City super-talent drop out of the rankings in favour of another, who returns to the top ten after one of the performances of the season so far – so there’s still plenty of brilliant football to pore over and quite a lot of movement. Can Jude Bellingham hang on to top spot, yet again, despite going a whole week without a goal? Read on to find out…

10. Eduardo Camavinga – Real Madrid (non-mover)

Camavinga has been quietly cracking on with his work in Madrid, not pulling up too many trees but also seldom putting a foot wrong – and he gave us a typically industrious and composed display in Real’s disappointing 0-0 draw with Rayo Vallecano this weekend.

By the time he was substituted off with five minutes left to play, the Frenchman had won six tackles and put up an 85% passing completion rate, which speaks to a rock solid display on the left of the midfield three. He may not have been able to inspire Real to a win, but he certainly made sure that they were never in danger of losing – Rayo didn’t get a single shot on target all game. Camavinga was a fairly large part of the reason for that.

9. Alejandro Balde – Barcelona (non-mover)

Another player of unquestionable quality who has basically just been ticking over nicely without blowing the doors off in La Liga. Balde can look back at his performance against Real Sociedad with a respectable amount of pride, especially given that he helped his side to a clean sheet in a very important 1-0 win which kept Barça firmly in the conversation for the title – but it wasn’t a game that will make the career highlights package.

Balde was deployed as a wing-back, wide of a back three on this occasion, but while he want about his duties with typical diligence, he didn’t really manage to make a dent in the final third. Still, he put in a couple of crucial challenges and didn’t do anything remotely daft – and if your teenagers can play with this much maturity in quieter games, you don’t have too much cause for complaint.

8. Xavi Simons – RB Leipzig (⬇️ from 5)

When Simons got himself back in the goals last week, we thought he might have turned the corner on a brief period of rather unimpressive form – this week suggests that there could be more work to do than we thought. The Dutchman played twice without making too much of an impact, and was downright disappointing in the 2-0 win over Mainz on Saturday.

He didn’t generate any meaningful chances for himself or anyone else in that game, despite playing in his favoured number ten role, where he put in several sterling performances earlier in the season – and to make matters worse, he managed to give the ball away 23 times. Keeping hold of possession is definitely not his strong suit, but that’s especially below par for the Dutchman. He didn’t offer too much more as Leipzig were knocked out of the DFB Pokal by Wolfsburg either. A classic “play like that again and you’re out of the top ten” performance.

7. Endrick – Palmeiras (new entry)

Not long after Endrick agreed a lucrative move to Real Madrid, things started to go south for the hugely-hyped Brazilian. A long run of rough form saw him crying on the bench not that long ago, and for all his evident talent the goals dried up as the pressure of his gigantic price tag began tell. It’s a delight to be able to say that he seems to have put all that behind him.

He wasn’t so much good as inspirational against Botafogo on Thursday, scoring twice as Palmeiras came from 3-0 down to win – his first was quite stunning, surging past four consecutive defenders with lightning quick feet before slotting his side’s first of the day home, but his second is the one that’s doing the rounds on social media thanks to a remarkable piece of skill which saw him control the ball with his left knee, dummying one shot and teeing up another in one fluid movement. He then added a goal in a win over Athletico Paranaense on Sunday – a brilliant talent back in fine form at long last.

6. Kendry Páez – Independiente del Valle (⬇️ from 4)

After scoring incessantly over the last few weeks, another South American talent who will soon make a big-money move to Europe had a more frustrating time of it – future Chelsea starlet Kendry. He couldn’t get on the scoresheet against LDU Quito in a game which Independiente lost despite dominating from first kick to last – with the home team winning 2-0 with just two shots on target. If this had happened in a game of Football Manager, it would have had any player tearing their hair out.

Kendry also may have betrayed a little bit of immaturity given some of the shots he took on – four from outside the box and two, in particular, from absolutely miles out. On the one hand, he understandably backs his prodigious ability. On the other, he maybe needs to learn to make some slightly more rational decisions when he gets the ball in the final third – but then, he is only 16…

5. Warren Zaïre-Emery – Paris Saint-Germain (⬆️ from 7)

17-year-old Zaïre-Emery already has an all-round game to rival practically any midfield in the world, but he didn’t have too much opportunity to show off the defensive side of his work in a routine 3-0 win over Montpellier. Happily, that left him free to do plenty of work further up the field.

The youngster scored PSG’s second, sliding a pass into Ousmane Dembélé before running into space to take the backheeled return ball and smashing into the net on the hour mark. He was just as impressive during the rest of the game as well, controlling possession brilliantly for the hosts and completing 92% of his passes. A cracking performance from a remarkable talent.

4. Jérémy Doku – Manchester City (re-entry)

What a performance from the young Belgian – probably the best of the Premier League season so far, by anyone. Doku put Bournemouth to the sword in the 6-1 win at the Etihad, scoring the opener and assisting no fewer than four of City’s goals as the beating wore on.

His turn of pace and dancing feet were far too much for Bournemouth from the moment he played a rapid-fire one-two and curled the ball deftly inside the far post, and the rest of the game largely served as a one-man highlight reel from which you could pick your favourite pieces of skill and purr over his best passes. Simply dazzling.

3. Jamal Musiala – Bayern Munich (⬇️ from 2)

It was a strange week for Bayern – first they were shockingly dumped out of the DFB Pokal by lowly Saarbrücken, then they smashed Borussia Dortmund in Der Klassiker with the help of a Harry Kane hat-trick. For Musiala, the week was no less unusual – in many ways, he was brilliant against Dortmund, but he will be left scratching his head as he tries to figure out how he failed to get on the scoresheet.

The young forward racked up 0.51xG all by himself but couldn’t get in the goals column during the derby match, even if his running, movement and ball control was every bit as good as always. He couldn’t make a dent in third-tier opposition in the cup, either, although he was restricted to a 30-minute cameo in that game.

2. Florian Wirtz – Bayer Leverkusen (⬆️ from 3)

A German youngster who could get among the goal was Wirtz, who scored yet another crucial goal as Leverkusen eked out another win to continue their stay at the top of the Bundesliga despite a rather sub-par team performance against Hoffenheim - and provided quite a few big-name teams with reasons to send the scouts over. Chances are that a very big move isn’t far away.

He both created and scored his goal, beating his man out on the left flank before laying it off to Victor Boniface, then finding room in the middle to slot the return pass calmly home to get the scoring started in what ended up as a rather edgy 3-2 win. He also picked up an assist in Leverkusen’s cosy 5-2 win over Sandhausen in the DFB Pokal, just to add a little cherry on top of another good week.

1. Jude Bellingham – Real Madrid (non-mover)

One game without a goal isn’t really a good excuse to drop Bellingham out of top spot, especially when he was probably the best player on the pitch yet again – even if he didn’t have his usual impact in the box this time around, with the England international seeing two of his shots blocked and his only other effort sail over the bar.

He was still impressive throughout, using the ball efficiently, dribbling superbly and winning almost every fifty-fifty situation he found himself in – unfortunately, this time, his team-mates couldn’t pick up the slack in the final third as Real lost their lead at the top of La Liga to the constantly-impressive Girona. Still brilliant, and still the best player for one of the world’s biggest teams.