7 rising ballers you must keep an eye on at Euro 2024 this summer
Discovering a new young talent at an international tournament is probably the best thing in the world. Except for like a perfectly clean volley. Or a new pair of boots. All brilliant things that should be enjoyed.
Euro 2024 is so very close, and this summer’s tournament will be a showcase for some of Europe’s most exciting young ballers.
We’ve compiled a list of some of the most tantalising young talents to look out for when it all kicks off in Germany. This lot are ready to make their mark on the international stage—keep your eyes peeled.
Adam Wharton
The rise of Adam Wharton has been enough to give even the most experienced scuba diver the bends. Sherpa Tenzing would get altitude sickness if he’d experienced such a rapid rise. Tim Peake would be vomming in his space suit. It’s been fast, is what we’re saying.
The current Crystal Palace man who started his season in the Championship with Blackburn Rovers is unlikely to be a familiar name to the more casual viewer, but that is going to change so soon.
Wharton may not get tonnes of playing time in Germany—competing with Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham, and Kobbie Mainoo for a place in Gareth Southgate’s team is a hell of a task—but if he’s afforded his opportunity, Wharton is so ready to take the spotlight.
Maximilian Beier
Germany’s 21-year-old skinny-legged winger is a strange player to watch. Beier is 6’1″ and sort of awkward in his movement, like when you put little shoes on a dog and they don’t know what the f*ck is going on.
Despite his slightly unorthodox frame and gait for his position, Beier scored 16 goals for Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga this season, dragging Die Kreichgauer to a seventh-placed finish. If he can force his way into the team, watch out for this long-legged mack daddy.
READ NEXT: The top 10 teenagers with the most goals & assists in Europe in 2024
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every team to win the UEFA European Championship?
Morten Hjulmand
Sporting Club de Portugal were on a different level, this season. The Lisbon side only lost two league matches across the entire 2023-24 campaign under Ruben Amorim’s guidance, and Morten Hjulmand was a huge part of that success.
Hjulmand is actually a fair bit older than anyone else on this list, at a positively ancient 24 years old, but the Dane’s stock has risen rapidly this season and he’s not yet a household name across Europe.
Euro 2024 offers an opportunity to take a look at Sporting’s superstar holding midfielder, but he may not belong to Sporting for much longer.
Antonio Silva
Portugal’s 20-year-old centre-half is fast, he’s strong, he’s 6’2″, and he f*cking loves a slide tackle. Benfica had better enjoy him whilst they can, because if Antonio Silva isn’t playing for a genuine powerhouse of European football next season, we’ll eat our sweaty five-a-side bibs.
Big slide tackles 4 lyf.
Lamine Yamal
The most talked-about 16-year-old since Justin Bieber has shown what he can do in La Liga and the Champions League in his breakthrough season at Barcelona, but La Masia’s golden boy now has the opportunity to take an international tournament by the horns, and we can’t wait to see what he does.
An awful lot of literal international defenders are about to get humbled by a kid in braces, and that is just beautiful.
READ: Barcelona’s terrifyingly brilliant XI for the future made exclusively of U21 wonderkids
Nico Williams
Tennis has the Williams sisters, football has the Williams brothers, and the younger of the two—the Serena to Inaki’s Venus—is electric.
Nico is Athletic Club’s shining star, having notched up well over a hundred appearances at just 21 years old, and now he could be starring alongside the aforementioned Yamal in an exciting young Spain team in Germany.
Williams has been widely touted for a big summer move, but if rumours about his massive wages at Athletic Club are true, he might be remaining in Bilbao a little longer yet.
Arda Guler
The Turkish teenage sensation made just ten La Liga appearances for Real Madrid this season—you try breaking into that team—but still managed six goals in those ten games. The kid is not daunted.
Guler will surely play a more prominent role for Turkey than he does for Los Blancos, and we’re excited to get a closer look at him at Euro 2024. Turkey have every chance of getting out of Group F (alongside Portugal, you’d imagine), and Guler will be crucial if they do.