Lamine Yamal levels up: SCOUT NOTES, February 15th
The free newsletter for scouting aficionados.
Côte d’Ivoire are African champions! They’ve done it in perhaps the most AFCON way possible — finishing third in their group, sacking their manager mid-tournament, trying to loan Hervé Renard from France before bringing in Reading legend Emerse Faé, then scrapping all the way to triumph on their own turf. But it’s tournament football, does it really matter how you win it?
Back in Europe, the UEFA Champions League knockout stage has rumbled around again, hot on the heels of the even-more-important UEFA Youth League which kicked off again last week — more on that below…
The Season of Summerville is in full swing, too. His brace against Rotherham and goal and assist at Swansea took him to 23 direct goal contributions in a little over 25 nineties played this season. His exceptional campaign may well power a youthful Leeds United back to the Premier League.
But on with the show, or the newsletter. Here’s some things that have been of interested to SCOUTED brains over the past week or so…
Shocks in the UEFA Youth League
The UEFA Youth League Play-Off round took place last week, featuring a round of fixtures between the Champions League path group runners-up, and the teams remaining from the Domestic Champions path.
It threw up some surprises to say the least, with some big name clubs that normally make deep runs in this competition finding themselves out of it long before finals weekend in Nyon, Switzerland.
Those clubs are Barcelona, Dortmund and Atlético Madrid, who went out to Mainz, AZ Alkmaar and Žilina respectively.
Barcelona would’ve been set for a massive run in this competition, but the senior call-ups for Pau Cubarsí, Héctor Fort, Marc Guiu, and Lamine Yamal has derailed their push for a third UEFA Youth League crown.
Here are all the results from the round of fixtures:
The big winners are defending champions AZ Alkmaar, who have now lost just once in 20 matches in this competition over the last three years. That defeat came in 2021/22, on penalties to a Juventus team featuring Fabio Miretti and Matías Soulé. That’s not bad going.
These results set us up perfectly for some very tasty looking Round of 16 match-ups, with all eyes on AZ-Porto, Real Madrid-Leipzig, and Mainz-City. Here’s the full slate of fixtures:
These fixtures will take place in a couple of weeks, and we’ll be covering them in depth exclusively here on the SCOUTED Notebook. Stay tuned.
If you want to catch up on the UEFA Youth League season so far, click here.
Lamine Yamal is levelling up already…
If you thought Lamine Yamal’s start to the season was impressive, you haven’t seen anything yet. The Barcelona youngster has played five full 90s on the bounce, and has become the creative hub of the club’s attack.
Against Girona on the weekend, it was time for him to step up as the big-time goal-scorer too, with Barcelona missing both João Félix and Ferran Torres due to recent injuries, and Robert Lewandowski continuing to experience some shaky form.
Yamal’s brace rescued a point in a 3-3 draw with Granada, with his 80th minute equaliser the pick of the goals from this six-goal thriller. It was another chance for him to show off his ridiculous ball-striking, first winning the ball back at the corner of the penalty area, before letting fly with a stunning drive from 25-yards after taking just a single touch to steady himself.
The quick backlift, the whip, the power… it’s so good. This kid has absolutely no fear of playing at this level, and he grows in stature with every passing matchday, ready to take on more and more responsibility as the key man in Barcelona’s front three.
And just as an aside… how lucky are Barça to have both Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsí — a pair of elite-level talents — emerging from their academy just as the club plunges into a(nother) financial crisis. They supplement first-team regulars in Gavi and Álex Baldé, and there’s a whole throng of talents like Héctor Fort pushing through as well. La Masia saves the day — again.
Right to Dream to the world
Brighton & Hove Albion have snapped up Ibrahim Osman for the coming summer. The reported fee comes in at over £20 million, which means the three biggest sales in Danish football are (or were, really) FC Nordsjælland players: Osman, Ernest Nuamah, and Kamaldeen Sulemana.
What else do they have in common? They’re all graduates of the Right to Dream in Ghana.
If you’re unfamiliar with Right to Dream, they’re the academy that owns the clubs. FC Nordsjælland is their base in Europe, the one that has showcased its best talent over the past decade, but they’ve sinced branched out into Egypt and a brand-new MLS franchise in San Diego.
Osman follows in the footsteps of Nuamah, Kamaldeen, Kudus and Adingra in bouncing onto bigger things after a brief spell at Nordsjælland, and there’ll be plenty more following him in the coming years.
Right to Dream have hit on a remarkably prolific and very profitable formula in the practically limitless talent pool that is Africa. They’re one of the best talent pipelines in football right now, and they’re also the blueprint for others to follow.
The dynamics in their case are unique but a club could yield similar results with investment that probably costs less than signing the flavour-of-the-month player from the Bundesliga, or something like that. Even partnering with an esteemed African academy — like FC Metz have with Génération Foot in Senegal, or Red Bull Salzburg have across the region — holds tremendous value for all involved. Africa is the future of football. Get ahead of the curve.
Ethan Nwaneri gets minutes
As Arsenal tonked West Ham for six early Sunday afternoon, their fans got a glimpse of their home-grown future in Ethan Nwaneri.
The 16-year-old came off the bench in the 77th minute, making his second senior appearance after becoming the Premier League’s youngest-ever player as a last-minute substitute against Brentford well over a year ago.
This has been a long time coming. There was much consternation in the fanbase when Arteta didn’t bring him on in Arsenal’s FA Cup loss at home to Liverpool as Jürgen Klopp turned to his own academy talent, but that was neither the time nor place to plunge a 16-year-old into to. But the emphatic dismantling of West Ham was.
These are the opportunities you have to take to push through the new blood, to give them a worthwhile experience that motiviates and (increasingly importantly) satisfies. Arteta missed the chance to bring Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly on when 5-0 up at half time at home against Lens in the Champions League. He didn’t make the same mistakes here — until he did.
While Nwaneri came on, the club’s U-21 captain Reuell Walters remained on the bench, watching the departing 32-year-old Cédric get on ahead of him. Walters’ contract expires this summer and the club are keen to renew it, but failing to bring him on in this scenario is the type of oversight that influences decisions.
Football Manager Corner
We’re back in eastern Europe, following on from our recommendation of Vasilije Adžić at the start of the year. We’re in Sofia more specifically, and we have an Asen Mitkov to offer you.
In real life, the 2005-born midfielder has broken into the Levski side this season and is catching the eye as a technically talented operator that can needle into good areas, escape tight spaces and bite into challenges.
In FM24, Mitkov represents good value for those managing clubs in the usual talent-developing leagues like your Belgiums and Netherlands, your Austria and Switzerlands, or the big Balkan clubs, or even your Championships.
He’s not as cheap as he could be, granted, but he has the base profile to fulfill his promise and carry the torch for Bulgaria in a top-five European league.
SCOUTED’s Reading List
It’s paywalled (and it’s The Telegraph) but Jason Burt’s interview with Southampton manager Russel Martin, in which he opens up about his childhood in an abusive household, is candid and compelling reading.
Manchester United haven’t been good at corners for a long time. But did something change against Aston Villa? Jake Fox has forensically analysed them to assess whether they could actually get better at them.
And finally… our very own Stephen Ganavas has written about the Next Gen model that’s giving Juventus, his beloved hamstrung club, some hope for the future. We think it’s a great read, so read it.