7 South American wonderkids to watch out for at the 2025 Club World Cup

Nestor Watach • 14 Jun 2025

The Club World Cup has traditionally been the wider footballing world’s first opportunity to take a look at some of the most talented youngsters emerging out of South America – and this summer’s vastly expanded tournament should be no exception.

Remember a young Neymar taking on Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Barcelona side way back in 2011? We could be set to see more stars of the future announce themselves to the world in a similar manner in the weeks ahead.

Here are seven of the most promising young South American talents to watch out for.

Estevao Willian

Arguably the most exciting prospect to come out of Brazil since Neymar – yes, really, that good – we’ve been keeping tabs on Estevao’s progress ever since Europe’s top clubs did battle for his signature a couple of years back.

Chelsea won out and the 18-year-old forward will finally join their ranks later this summer after playing in the Club World Cup with his boyhood club.

With a relatively favourable group – Porto, Al Ahly and Inter Miami – Palmeiras can harbour genuinely realistic hopes of making it through the group stages and going the furthest of all the South American participants.

The Blues’ latest superstar has been given a stage on which he can really shine. Be very excited.

Allen Obando

Lionel Messi was playing in his first-ever World Cup with Argentina when his Inter Miami team-mate Obando was born in June 2006.

The MLS outfit signed the forward on loan from Barcelona SC (of Guayaquil, Ecuador) back in March and he’s been included in Javier Mascherano’s squad for the Club World Cup.

Obando has been eased in slowly, but he’s scored on his only MLS start to date and looks as though he has something about him. Inter Miami reportedly hold a purchase option, but he’s officially owned by the Atletico Madrid group and may yet join the La Liga giants further down the line.

Igor Jesus

Yeah, yeah. We know. Any Football Manager obsessives reading this will likely be aghast at us including a 24-year-old in a list of “wonderkids”. Jesus has already spent four years of his career out in the wilderness of the UAE Pro League.

But we couldn’t help but include the Brazil international, who still has all his best years ahead of him and looks as though he could be a real coup of a signing for Nottingham Forest.

Jesus has looked the complete, modern-day centre-forward since leaving Shabab Al Ahli for Botafogo last year. He doesn’t have the most prolific goalscoring record, but he’s a tireless worker and his hold-up play is exceptional.

His leading the line will be vital to Botafogo’s hopes of progressing through a tough group that features both Atletico Madrid and PSG

Franco Mastantuono

The name on everybody’s lips.

Real Madrid have won the race to sign the technically gifted midfielder, who made his debut for Argentina at the age of 17 over the most recent international break.

Reminiscent of a young Zinedine Zidane, he’s not the quickest but he possesses lethal deal-ball ability, an eye for a defence-splitting pass and the kind of close control that can bamboozle the opposition.

It’s expected that his move to the Bernabeu will be completed once he’s played out this tournament with River Plate. He turns 18 in August and will be free to make the move across the Atlantic.

Ian Subiabre

Here at Planet Football, we love a Brazilian who sounds like a member of your local bowls club. Fred, Wallace, Allan, Victor and the like.

We’re also big fans of an Argentinian starlet called Ian. There aren’t enough footballers called Ian nowadays.

Where were we? Ahem. Ian Subiabre is older than his River Plate team-mate Mastantuono but just breaking through into the first team. The 18-year-old winger only has a handful of appearances under his belt but you can already see the talent.

He’s been compared to fellow River Plate graduate Julian Alvarez and could be on the cusp of a major breakthrough at the Club World Cup.

Alvaro Montoro

Another Argentinian, Montoro won the Argentine Primera Division with Velez Sarsfield last year and has been snapped up by Brazilian giants Botafogo just in time for the Club World Cup.

The 18-year-old attacking midfielder could make his debut for his new club in their must-win opener against Seattle Sounders.

David Martinez

One of the breakout stars of the South American Under-17 Championship a couple of years back, Martinez is one of the leading lights of an exciting generation of Venezuelan talent.

The only CONMEBOL nation to have never qualified for the World Cup, Venezuela are vying to be in next summer’s tournament and 19-year-old forward Martinez looks on the cusp of breaking through into the senior set-up.

Last year, he joined LAFC, who have been a late addition to this Club World Cup. They face Chelsea, Flamengo and Esperance de Tunis.

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name all 32 teams to have qualified for 2025 Club World Cup?

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