The Wonderkid Power Rankings - Brilliant Jude Bellingham and prime Pedri battle for top spot

Welcome to The Wonderkid Power Rankings, a weekly feature tracking the biggest talents in world football and rating the very best based on not just their potential but their form.

It’s been an up and down sort of week for the game’s brightest and best, with some young superstars hitting their stride at the same time as a handful of big names hit a lull. Arsenal’s dismal defeat to Brighton sees a couple of their brilliant young talents drop a little, while the excellent Arda Güler takes what’s liable to be a temporary break from proceedings, as Fenerbahçe didn’t play this past week.

Elsewhere, Barcelona’s young bucks had a big week as they were crowned champions of Spain, but there’s still no space for Gavi after an extended spell of comparatively quiet form – while Gift Orban, a former inductee, can consider himself a little unlucky to miss out this week after hitting a hat-trick against Cercle Bruge. His exclusion is simply a testament to the quality of some of these kids – and our unwillingness to jettison the likes of Bukayo Saka just yet.

1. Jude Bellingham – Borussia Dortmund (non-mover)

Continuing his superb recent form with another stellar performance against Borussia Mönchengladbach, Bellingham was on the scoresheet again, slotting home a slightly soft penalty as his club maintained the pressure on Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga. Word on the grapevine is that Bellingham has moved a step closer to agreeing a deal with Real Madrid, and judging by the way he’s played over the past term, he’ll be brilliant at the Bernabeu – and bad news for Toni Kroos and Luka Modrić.

2. Pedri – Barcelona (re-entry)

Having spent a couple of months sat sullenly on the sidelines, Pedri is back with a serious bang. He set up the second of Barcelona’s four goals against Espanyol, pinging a perfectly-weighted ball over to the back post to tee up Alejandro Baldé – who we’ll get to later. Any fears that he might miss a beat after spending some time on the treatment table are patently unfounded, and the youngster looked in fine fettle as he danced through the opposing defence on a regular basis, plenty of his dazzling technique and fluid control on display. A wonderful player, and one we’ve missed being able to gush over every week.

3. Eduardo Camavinga – Real Madrid (⬆️ from 3)

There were moments in the first leg against Manchester City when Camavinga was somewhat exposed as a midfielder playing out of position, and moments when one of Europe’s best attacks managed to put him on the back foot – but given the challenge presented, the ever-impressive young Frenchman passed the test pretty well, staving off several dangerous attacks down the right flank – and after an injury scare, he’s expected to be back in the starting line-up on Wednesday. In the meantime, another solid display in the defeat of Getafe means he stays comfortably inside the top five. Still a square peg in a round hole, perhaps, at left-back, but one that’s rapidly smoothing off the edges.

4. Karim Adeyemi – Borussia Dortmund (⬇️ from 3)

A blank for the fleet-footed winger this week, but before the 5-2 thumping of Mönchengladbach he had registered a goal or assist every 65 minutes – the best rate of any player in Europe’s big five leagues – so we won’t be too harsh on his ranking this time around just because he missed out for once. He adds an astonishing amount of threat to Dortmund’s offensive line, and they missed Adeyemi terribly during his spells on the sidelines this season – his speed, dribbling and eye for both goal and a final ball make him a lethal all-round player. He has a huge future, and the big boys will come after him before too long.

5. Gabriel Martinelli – Arsenal (⬇️ from 2)

Another rough ride for Arsenal and another relatively quiet game for Martinelli, who struggled to get to grips with Brighton’s defence in the way he regularly did against teams for several months earlier in the season. Then again, the players behind him aren’t getting hold of the ball or using it as well, so the supply line to the forwards has dried up somewhat, which explains a lot of Martinelli and Saka’s recent struggles. With the title race pretty much done and dusted after the dismal display at the Emirates, Arsenal’s young guns could be forgiven for putting their feet up a bit for the last few weeks of the season – but only if they don’t mind dropping down the Power Rankings a bit, of course.

6. Jamal Musiala – Bayern Munich (⬆️ from 10)

Having finally earned Thomas Tuchel’s trust – and his starting berth back – Musiala is rapidly putting his lean run of form firmly in the rear-view mirror. His performance in the 6-0 crushing of Schalke might have been his best yet in a Bayern shirt, running a ragged defence into the ground, teeing up Mathys Tel superbly for one goal and winning a penalty for another. A wonderful performance that underlined the strangeness of his month of exile on the Bayern bench – an extended mistake that Tuchel is presumably unlikely to repeat in a hurry.

7. Bukayo Saka – Arsenal (⬇️ from 5)

It’s been a rare fallow patch for the England man lately – as Arsenal’s title charge has fizzled out, he’s cut a comparatively isolated and forlorn figure, lacking his usual zip and spark. It will, no doubt, prove to be no more than a temporary reprieve for Premier League left-backs – he came back better than ever from missing a penalty in the final of the European Championships, so a couple of quiet games against Manchester City and Brighton should be chicken feed for the diminutive maestro. It’s not exactly panic stations if you have in your fantasy team, put it that way.

8. Alejandro Baldé – Barcelona (re-entry)

A brilliant performance against Espanyol for the young Spanish full-back, including his first senior goal – ghosting in at the back post to slot Pedri’s exquisite ball past a helpless ‘keeper. His assist, for Robert Lewandowski’s opener, was arguably even better – hypnotising his opposite number with quick shifts of pace, beating them to the byline with ease and whipping in a lethal cross which the Pole couldn’t fail to connect with. In a team jam-packed with extraordinary young talents, Baldé is making the case to be considered one of the very best.

9. Yéremy Pino – Villarreal (⬇️ from 9)

A good performance from the on-song Spaniard this week, as Villarreal marmalised the unfortunate Athletic Bilbao in a 5-1 win that keeps The Yellow Submarine in the hunt for a relatively unlikely Champions League spot. No goals or assists this time out but he’s chipped in with his fair share lately, and his clever, dynamic runs down the left flank caused the Bilbao backline plenty of headaches – allowing him to get three shots on goal. The only blot on his copybook so far this year is that he hasn’t added as much to his goal threat as might have been hoped – five assists in his last 12 games are supported by only one goal to call his own. Still, you can’t ask for everything, can you?

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10. Xavi Simons – PSV Eindhoven (re-entry)

A sixteenth league goal of a hugely productive campaign in the Eredivisie earned PSV a 2-1 win over Fortuna Sittard this week, and it was an absolute rocket from distance, guided with precision and immense power into the top corner. Stick his eight assists on top and you have a player making serious waves – and, judging by the fact that he’s just switched agent, probably a player who wants to make waves at a bigger club pretty soon. A former Barcelona and PSG player, he’s finally been given his chance to shine and is taking it in serious style.