Lamine Yamal features 

Yamal, Endrick & Guler: Top 20 wonderkids at World Cup ranked

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The World Cup provides the biggest platform for youngsters to announce themselves as undisputed superstars and they’ll be an array of wonderkids on show in North America this summer. With the tournament expanded to 48 teams, there’ll be even more starlets on show from all over the world. The World Cup has been the stage where so many iconic players truly made their names after lighting up the most prestigious international tournament.

Who can forget Kylian Mbappé’s first World Cup in 2018 when he shone by scoring four goals, including the decisive one in the final as France lifted the famous trophy. Thomas Müller burst onto the scene in 2010 in South Africa to claim the golden boot after notching five goals, whilst providing three assists. Furtherback, Pelé reached the masses in 1958 when he became the youngest ever player as he fired Brazil to their maiden World Cup title in Sweden. Therefore, we’ve listed the 20 best wonderkids at the World Cup this summer based on Transfermarkt’s famed market values and you can check every U21 player at the tournament in the link below!

The 20 best wonderkids at the World Cup

There are 86 U21 players at the World Cup and Lamine Yamal is the most valuable at €200 million. Alongside Erling Haaland, Yamal is the most valuable player on Transfermarkt and the Barcelona superstar aiming to light up the World Cup after his brilliance at Euro 2024. After playing important roles as PSG won back-to-back Champions Leagues, João Neves and Désiré Doué received significant upgrades in the Ligue 1 market value update and they are the only two other U21 stars valued over €100m.

As the graphic above illustrates, Yan Diomande is the only African player in the top ten with the Ivory Coast star aiming to build on his breakthrough season at RB Leipzig. Three Turkiyie players feature in the top twenty list with Real Madrid’s Arda Güler possessing the highest value at €90m. The top South American wonderkid based on market value at the World Cup is Nico Paz with Argentinian duo Rayan and Endrick also featuring.

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