Six of the best: Which players impressed in the UEFA U-17 EURO group stage?

If you want to get ahead of the curve, you watch the U-17 European Championship. Here are six talents that caught our eye in the group stage

Though the FIFA U-20 World Cup might be the youth tournament that draws the most attention this summer, a second kicked off earlier in May: the UEFA U-17 European Championship.

The U-17 EURO is always a lot of fun, granting an opportunity to glimpse the next generation of European stars before they are exposed to the limelight of senior football – and so far this year’s edition, held in Hungary, has been no different. The tournament’s group stage concluded on Wednesday and a host of future stars already caught the eye. 

There’s a lot to like from this generation, including a glut of high-quality attacking creators, some intriguing number 9s, a few dominant full-backs, and some ball-dominant holding midfielders.

There is plenty to play for too, with five spots at the Under-17 World Cup later this year up for grabs in a confederation that has the talent pool to probably send three times that amount. Given that Italy, Portugal, Croatia and the Netherlands have already been knocked out of this tournament – and the likes of Belgium and Denmark did not even qualify – the U-17 international level has again proved its competitivenes

Germany, Spain, Poland, Serbia and Switzerland were the standout teams from the group stage, but there were standout players everywhere we looked. Below are those we like most so far - with more to come at the conclusion of the tournament.