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Our NextGen picks from five years ago show that breaking through early does not guarantee longevity or future success
Composite: Guardian Pictures; Gonzales Photo/Alamy; Orange Pictures/Shutterstock; PAOur NextGen picks from five years ago show that breaking through early does not guarantee longevity or future success n 2021, as every year, we picked 80 players from around the world who had a chance of making it in world football – We then follow these talented boys on their journeys for five years.
Often it is almost impossible to predict how they will get on , Paul , and Wally , all enjoyed careers as players.
The youngest to play in the Bundesliga at 16 years and one day, youngest player to appear in the Champions League 17 days later, youngest goal scorer in Bundesliga 11 days after that and youngest player and youngest goal scorer for the Germany Under-21 team before he has turned 17. Borussia Dortmund’s Youssoufa Moukoko went on to play for Germany at the World Cup the following year, at the same time as Jack Hinshelwood was promoted to the Brighton Under-21s.
Different trajectories, different pressures. Moukoko was already known around the world and tipped for a long career at the top. There was something completely carefree about his style, young Michael Owen-esque. Take a look at his early goals in the Bundesliga Then life interfered.
Moukoko sustained some injuries and struggled to make the Dortmund starting XI. To be fair, he also had some decent competition up front as Erling Haaland had arrived in 2020. Moukoko had a really good spell at the start of the 2022-23 season, after Haaland had joined Manchester City, but sustained an ankle ligament tear and never quite got his starting place back.
These days Moukoko is playing in the Turkish top flight with Corum, on loan from Copenhagen, where he moved in 2025. His switch to the newly promoted Turkish top-flight side was low key with the club welcoming Moukoko to the “family” with a short statement.
He is yet to start a game but his cameos off the bench have offered flashes of his quality – most notably marking his home debut with a sharp assist in a 3–0 win over Eyüpspor. His market value is €5m reckons transfermarkt.com.
Meanwhile, Hinshelwood has made 67 Premier League appearances and was included on Thomas Tuchel’s 55-man longlist for the 2026 World Cup. A frustrating ankle injury has hampered him at the start of this campaign but his star is rising and he has a market value of €28m . Not that Brighton are about to sell him. Neither player chose their path and whether they broke through early.
They simply developed at a different pace. Hinshelwood was not ready to play top-flight football at 17; Moukoko was. Did the early exposure have a negative impact on Moukoko? It is impossible to say.that “it is definitely not just a straight line”, saying: “There were lots of bumps and ups and downs along the way.
” There was one moment when Hinshelwood, then with the under-15s, was set a challenge to play with an older age-group, and that arguably made him as a footballer.
“It was a big catalyst for Jack,” Adam said. “He rolled up his sleeves and became a proper footballer. ”Out of our 60 world talents, 24 have gone on to represent their countries. Moukoko stands on two caps, some distance behind players such as Julio Enciso and Gavi.
Some have had to swap allegiances to play senior international football, such as Livano Comenencia, who started out with the Netherlands age-group teams but has more than 20 caps for Curaçao and played at this summer’s World Cup. From our Premier League picks in 2021 astonishingly few players are with the same club. Hinshelwood is one, Liverpool’s Kaide Gordon another, but that is it. The other 18 are playing around the globe, including in the US, Qatar and Hong Kong.
The 20 players have played a total of 145 top-flight games, not a bad tally, but Hinshelwood accounts for almost half of those. Adrian Blake, who was with Watford in 2021, has carved out a very successful career in the Netherlands, having joined Utrecht in 2023. But he too, struggled in the beginning.
“It hasn’t been easy and a lots of ups and downs,”Blake moved to the Netherlands when he was 17. It was a huge gamble for someone so young but he says he chose the Eredivisie “because it is a great league for young players”, offering opportunities that often do not exist in England.
“For me it was a no-brainer,” he said. The 21-year-old has almost his whole career in front of him, as do Moukoko and Hinshelwood – and yet they have experienced so much already. What will the next five years bring?
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