Juventus talent Yildiz among most experienced teenagers in world football

The CIES Football Observatory has ranked the top 100 teenagers in football for their relative experience level: Juventus talent Kenan Yildiz is placed 15th, the best among Serie A players.

Juventus talent Yildiz is the ‘most experienced’ Serie A teenager in Serie A, a recent report from CIES Football Observatory highlights.

CIES has ranked the top 100 U20 players worldwide for their relative experience level, and it’s probably unsurprising to see Barcelona and Spain’s talent Lamine Yamal at the top.

“Lamine Yamal tops the list with 2.75 times more experience than the average measured for players of the same age and position,” said CIES.

“The Spaniard outranks his Barcelona teammate Pau Cubarsí (x2.42) and Real Madrid’s Endrick Felipe (x2.41).”

Yamal has already made 55 senior appearances with Barcelona, including 42 in La Liga and 10 in the Champions League. He also won the Euros with the Spanish national team last summer, scoring one goal and providing four assists.

Only five Serie A players feature in the latest CIES ranking, but three of them, Vasilije Adžić (Juventus), Silvano Vos (Milan), and Damian Pizarro (Udinese), have yet to make their debuts, having joined their new clubs this summer. This means that they’ve accumulated the current experience level at their previous clubs.

Adzic was injured in Juventus’s opening Serie A games, but he is expected to make his Bianconeri debut this coming weekend.

His Juventus teammate Yildiz (x2.04) is placed 15th and is the first Serie A player in the CIES ranking. He is followed by Pizarro (45th) and Adzic (47th), Francesco Pio Esposito (Spezia, Serie B, 66th), Vos (89th) and Santiago Castro (Bologna, 90th).