The best U20 players in the world: BVB gem Bellingham top Bundesliga star | OneFootball

They will shape football in the next decade: the mega-talents under 20 years old. A large number of these young players are on the brink of a great career. Only a few have yet to find their way to a top club. Among them, Jobe Bellingham (19) from Borussia Dortmund ranks high on the CIES list.

The Centre International d’Etude du Sport, or CIES for short, is an independent research and education center based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. It is a joint venture of the world football association FIFA, the University of Neuchâtel, and the city of Neuchâtel.

At the end of August 2025, the International Centre for Sports Studies published a list of the world's 200 best U20 professionals. The ranking is determined 50 percent by an experience index and 50 percent by a performance index.

In the top two positions are – unsurprisingly – two players from FC Barcelona. Prodigy Lamine Yamal (18) leads with an overall score of 97.7 (Experience 98.1 – Performance 97.3). His teammate Pau Cubarsí (18) follows with 93.4 (Exp. 95.7 – Perf. 91.1). The bronze position goes to Warren Zaïre-Emery (19) from Paris Saint-Germain with 87.8 (Exp. 87.2 – Perf. 88.4).

Don't Sell Average as World-Class

The best Bundesliga player in the CIES ranking is Dortmund's Bellingham at 14th place. The 19-year-old midfielder, who recently dazzled European football with his performance in England's U21, has a score of 82.0 (Exp. 83.3 – Perf. 80.6). He is just ahead of Leipzig's new signing Andrija Maksimović (18) in 16th place with 80.8 points (Exp. 77.8 – Perf. 83.7). The third-best Bundesliga player is also the best German. Finn Jeltsch (19) from VfB Stuttgart is only in 48th place with 77.1 (Exp. 76.7 – Perf. 77.6).

The comparatively poor ranking of German top talents illustrates the problem that BVB advisor Matthias Sammer (58) addressed with clear words in July. "Provocatively, I ask myself: What does German football actually stand for today? I can't see it," he said in an interview with Kicker. He continued: "German football must learn again not to sell average as world-class."

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.