Biggest Football Talents in La Liga – Part 5

Our series have come to the finishing episode: let’s see who the biggest football talents in Spain are!

Villarreal, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid. These 4 teams are left for the last episode since they have the most outstanding teams as well as young talents in the league. However, it’s worth checking out their squads and seeing what the youngsters’ chances are for making it to the first team. Maybe we can already find the players now of whom online betting news in Spain will keep talking about in the next few years!

The best young talents at Villarreal’s squad

As we have mentioned it in our previous episodes of this series, Villarreal has several outstanding talents training and playing for different La Liga clubs in hopes of getting as many minutes to play as possible. That is because they are one of the best football teams in Spain and hence they have no time to worry about young players’ development. Then are in desperate need of experienced stars.

However, they still have a few of the biggest football talents whose odds to score a decisive goal can always be pretty low at online sportsbooks in Spain. First of all we need to mention Villarreal’s 20-year-old homegrown player, Rodri. The Spanish midfielder was raised atVillarreal B but forms part of the first team from this season on and the manager seems to be counting on his abilities.

Villarreal can also count on the services of 2 young attackers: the 21-year-old Samu Castillejo arrived from Málaga after a remarkable season. He played in 34 league games and despite the fact that he scored only once, he created many chances for his mates and hopes to develop even more at the Submarino Amarillo. The other one is Atletico’s 20-year-old striker, Rafael Santos Borré.This is the first season in Europe for the Colombian striker. Let’s see what he’s capable of!

Atletico Madrid always finds the perfect striker…

Despite the fact that Atlético’s game does not really require great attacking mindset as they rely purely on their fighting and defending abilities, somehow their scouts always manage to discover the brightest striker stars for the future. Let’s just take a moment to think about the Atlético years from the past few years…quite a list!

One of their latest discovery is – after Thibaut Courtois returned to Chelsea – the Slovenian goalkeeper, Jon Oblak, who is still only 23 years old. However, they are also full of talented young attackers such as 21-year-old Argentine midfielder Angel Correa or also 21-year-old homegrown midfielder, Saúl Niguez, who already scored impressive goals against the likes of Real Madrid as well as Bayern Munich.

They are the brightest young talents at Atlético as for now, but it is very much possible that they already have the next Forlán in their youth teams. Or the next Agüero, or the next Fernando Torres or the next Falcao or the next Griezmann, for that matter. Looking forward to see who they give to the football world next!

The famous La Masia of Barcelona

Of course a team that develops players like Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, together with great back-up players like Piqué, Fabregas, Pedro in one sole generation, will always be remembered as the team that was once best at producing and developing young talents to become great football stars. But is that really the case? Are they really that full of homegrown talents?

Their current squad consists of mostly elderly players, which, considering the fact that around half of these players is homegrown with tons of experience, is completely normal. The youngest ones of Barcelona’s squad for this season are all around 23 years old and most of them are not homegrown but were purchased. Some of them for pretty expensive in fact.

Let’s just take a look at 23-year-old André Gomes, who was bought from Valencia (just like Paco Alcacer) at the end of EURO 2016. The Portuguese has been linked with a move to Real Madrid for weeks when he surprisingly announced his transfer to the Blaugrana. Samuel Umtiti and Lucas Digne were also purchased, both from France: the former from Lyon, while the latter from PSG. However, they still work with homegrown youngsters such as Denis Suarez and Rafinha, who are important members of Barca’s rotation system.

Real Madrid have surprisingly young players

Real Madrid, the team that has always been known for purchasing the most expensive players, is about to make a change in its image and how the club is being perceived by others: this summer, they only signed Marco Asesnsio from Espanyol and bought back Alvaro Morata from Juventus.

They had a similar deal with Dani Carvajal like Alvaro Morata. The 24-yeaar-old right-back spent one year at Leverkusen where he developed so much, he was bought back at the end of the season and became key player since then. Something similar was expected to happen to Mariano, 23, but the striker stayed at Real Madrid. He was not sent on a loan although many La Liga teams were trying to capture him.

Asensio is also worth mentioning again. The 20-year-old attacking midfielder has already showed why Zinedine Zidane counts on his services, and he is expected to continue doing so. Moreover, when we talk about Real Madrid youngsters, we must mention Norwegian wonderkid Martin Ödegaard, who might gain more time this season in Zidane’s squad. Although he still have tons of time as he is still only 17 years old. Maybe in ten years, he will be the hot favourite at online sportsbooks for winning the Balon d’Or…or maybe he will play for low league team like many previous “next Messis” or “future Ronaldos.”

If you missed out on the previous episodes, make sure to check them out by clicking on the following links:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4