Ranking the 7 best wonderkids in world football – according to Football Manager 26

Football Manager 26 is out next week, but the full database of players has been revealed and rising stars at Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Chelsea are among the wonderkids with the highest potential.

Developing wonderkids and building your club’s future around their rise is an integral and immensely satisfying part of the Football Manager experience.

After a two-year wait, we cannot wait to get stuck in and conquer the world with these immensely talented starlets. But who are the absolute standout players in world football right now?

With credit to FM Scout for the ratings, here are the only seven players with a 90+ potential rating on Football Manager 26.

7. Nico Paz (Como) – 90

During Tottenham’s entertaining supermarket dash in the final weeks of the summer transfer window, eventually landing on Xavi Simons after failing to get Morgan Gibbs-White over the line, Tottenham made an audacious €40million bid for the Como star.

Daniel Levy couldn’t make it work and found himself out of a job a few weeks later. Spurs fans are well-versed in this, but Paz in particular is destined to become a classic ‘one that got away’.

The Argentinian decided to continue his development with Serie A upstarts Como and that appears to be an excellent decision. He’s going from strength to strength under the tutelage of Cesc Fabregas, with four goals and four assists in the Italian top flight already this season.

We’re expecting a huge year ahead for the 21-year-old, who could play a massive role as Lionel Messi’s understudy for Argentina at next summer’s World Cup.

He looks destined to go right to the very top, and Real Madrid exercising a well-publicised buyback clause appears increasingly inevitable.

=5. Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal) – 91

After bursting onto the scene last season, Lewis-Skelly has struggled to get into Mikel Arteta’s favoured XI as backline of Timber-Saliba-Gabriel-Calafiori have absolutely locked things down.

All six of his Premier League appearances so far this season have come via the bench.

But that’s not a bad place for the 19-year-old to be. The Gunners are competing on four fronts and he’ll continue to get regular opportunities as Arteta shuffles his remarkably well-stacked, well-balanced pack.

A huge part of Arsenal’s future.

=5. Dean Huijsen (Real Madrid) – 91

The centre-back with the highest potential on Football Manager 26, Huijsen stands ahead of the likes of Leny Yoro, Giovanni Leoni and his Spain team-mate Pau Cubarsi.

He looks generationally gifted when it comes to playing out from the back – a key pillar in the new-look, more tactically-perceptible team Xabi Alonso is building at The Bernabeu.

=1. Ayyoub Bouaddi (Lille) – 92

Bouaddi isn’t as much of a household name as the other superstars who have a 92 potential rating on Football Manager 26, but that’ll surely change when he inevitably moves to one of Europe’s top clubs.

We’ve put together the full lowdown on the immensely talented 18-year-old.

READ: Who is Ayyoub Bouaddi? The lowdown on FM26’s #1 wonderkid linked with Arsenal and Man Utd

=1. Endrick (Real Madrid) – 92

Unlike the other players on this list, Endrick is struggling badly this season.

It was a few years ago that the Brazilian teenager was getting talked up as a successor to the likes of Pele and Neymar, let alone Vinicius Junior. The talent is unquestionable, but the adaptation to football in a new continent has been tough.

He struggled to hit the ground running in his debut season at the Bernabeu, amid world-class competition, and now finds himself practically frozen out, way down the pecking order under Xabi Alonso.

A January loan move appears best for all parties. We’re fascinated in how he’ll look at a club that can afford him more regular opportunities.

=1. Willian Estevao (Chelsea) – 92

Generally, South America’s hottest young talent goes straight to La Liga (Rodrgyo, Vinicius, Endrick, Neymar) or uses the Portuguese Primeira Liga as a logical stepping stone before moving on to the very elite.

Estevao is a unique case in that he’s gone straight to the Premier League as a teenager. We can’t remember that happening before.

It’ll be interesting to see how the forward progresses as he settles into life on a new continent, but we’ve already seen some frightening flashes of his potential.

You don’t want to burden the kid, but it’s not difficult to see why he was generating ‘the new Neymar’ hype back in Brazil.

=1. Lamine Yamal (Barcelona) – 92

Of course.

The only major surprise is that Yamal’s potential rating is only 92.

Undoubtedly the hottest property in world football right now, Yamal’s start to the 2025-26 campaign has been hampered by injury knocks.

But even amid that stop-start frustration, he already looks one of the very best footballers in world.

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