Football is in full swing again. The transfer window is a distant memory, the international tournaments have wrapped up, almost every European league has returned from its mid-season hibernation, and Asia and the Americas are kicking off their seasons too.
It’s all about club football from here on in, baby – well, at least until everything pauses again for an international break and the all-important UEFA 2024 play-offs roll around in the middle of March. Amdani Cymru!
One of the talking points of the past week has been the UEFA Champions League and it’s entertainment value. Three-quarters of last week’s Round of 16 ties ended as expected, Lazio beating Bayern the only exception. So, what do you think: is the UEFA Champions League boring now?
We’ll tell you what isn’t boring: the UEFA Europa League, nor is the UEFA Conference League. The play-off rounds of both – which sees the third-placed group stagers drop down from the competition above to play the second-placers, a relatively new addition – was packed with exciting action.
If you want to see European football at its best, its most diverse, its most exciting, and often its most youthful, then you should be glued to your screens for about five hours on a Thursday night. Alternatively, you watch the UEFA Youth League whenever you get the chance.
Anyway, waffle over, on with the newsletter…
Joshua Zirkzee: the next big striker sale
Bologna are going great guns in Serie A. They’re fifth in the table credibly competing for a Champions League qualification slot, and are earning rave reviews for the way they play under Thiago Motta. The lynchpin of their side is 22-year-old centre-forward, Joshua Zirkzee.
He’s not ripping the league apart with prolific goalscoring or blowing the doors off with any exceptional underlying numbers in that regard, but he is the reference point with an all-round presence that has people excited. He drops to receive into pockets, backs in to take direct passes, links with deft touches, turns with a sleek balance, releases runners with clever balls, then arrives into good areas to get on the end of moves he’s developed.
Zirzkee’s goalscoring numbers sit at about average-to-above-average in Serie A this season, but the focal point aspect of his game is what sets him apart as one of the most prominent emerging options in a high-value striker market.
Bologna will probably smash their record sale this summer when a big club comes in for the Dutchman. It could be AC Milan looking trying to unlock their attack, perhaps a Napoli looking to fill an Osimhen-shaped hole, or any number of Premier League clubs. We’re talking €40 million easy, here, if not €50 million – over double the highest fee Bologna have received in their history when they sold Simone Verdi to Napoli.
Major League Soccer is changing
MLS is no longer a safe haven for aging stars that want a change of pace from the intensity of European football. Well, it sort of is, look at Inter Miami, but the emphasis is definitely shifting toward up-and-coming talent.
Jovan Mijatović is the latest example, joining NYCFC from FK Crvena zvezda for upwards of €10 million. He’s a top-level talent that a lot of the best talent-developing European clubs would’ve loved to have got, but he’s gone to MLS at 18 years old to continue his development. It’s a trend we’re seeing more and more of, particularly from markets like the Balkans.
MLS is becoming the stepping stone for the better South American talent too. Instead of going to a Spain or a Portugal or a France, South Americans prospects are increasingly moving north to the USA.
David Martínez – perhaps the biggest talent in Venezuelan football right now, a do-it-all attacker that Ajax were set to sign last year – has moved to LAFC. He’ll probably be a starter there, and he’ll probably do really well there, and he’ll probably move to an Ajax-level club in a year or two. Everyone’s Favourite Midfielder Federico Redondo was set to join Messi in Miami, but that deal fell through.
The recent sales of Jhon Durán to Aston Villa, Taty Castellanos to Lazio and Đorđe Petrović to Chelsea – three of the top-six sales in MLS history – only validates and vindicates the league-wide shift toward recruiting and developing young talent. That’s the future for the foreseeable.
Land ahoy!
Whip your periscopes out and get on the look out for Land – Tygo Land that is, an emergent prospect at PSV Eindhoven that has impressed at age-group level this season.
We’ve been watching more of him recently and really like what we see. The 2006-born midfielder has a profile that fits the demands of the elite level – he’s a connector through the thirds, a game-builder and move-developer, a deceptively mobile athlete, and an edgy ball-winner.
We guarantee you’ll think of Frenkie de Jong when you first watch him. There are pretty stark similarities between Land and his compatriot, the most obvious being the way they slip and slide away from pressure in midfield, driving into space with a change of tempo that leaves defenders in their wake.
In terms of physical development, the next couple of years could be crucial for Land – they may blast him up to the upper echelons of emerging talent, or they may cap him as a good-not-great prospect. There’s room for him to grow a couple more inches, as well as to become more powerful and durable.
With PSV steamrolling their way to the Eredivisie title, we’ll be surprised if Land isn’t fast-tracked toward first-team integration once everything is more or less wrapped up. He’s one to keep a close eye out for.
Watchlist: Semih Kılıçsoy
Anyone that keeps a keen eye may well have seen this name pop up in recent weeks. He’s on a bit of a tear in Türkiye, contributing to eight goals in eight league games for Beşiktaş since the turn of the year.
We’ve delved into the video to have a look and we’ve liked what we’ve seen. The 18-year-old is a compact forward that can operate across the attacking line — drifting wide to get on the dribble, combing in quick spurs, hanging off shoulders to get into dangerous areas, and shooting powerfully off both feet.
Kılıçsoy looks good, and he supplements the attacking talents of Juventus’ Kenan Yıldız who has already broken into the Turkish mainstream. The Beşiktaş teenager may well follow suit before long.
The return of the J.LEAGUE
Japanese football is back, and you should watch it. For those in the UK, there will be four live, free-to-watch games every matchweek on the J.LEAGUE International channel on YouTube.
We’re often asked how to start scouting and we often reply with two things: one, watch as much football as you can; and two, find a niche.
The J.LEAGUE(s) is as good a niche as any to nestle into. Why? Well, there’s a whole back catalogue of full matches to watch back on YouTube, the market is exploding in terms of popularity, as well as scouting and recruitment in European circles, and the level of the league is excellent.
We did a bit of scouting there ourselves at the start of the year, where we picked out five J.LEAGUE players to watch for 2024.
Football Manager Corner
After bouncing around some obscure corners of the game, we’ve gone a bit more mainstream with our pick this week: it’s 1. FC Nürnberg’s Can Uzun.
You may have heard of him at the start of this season when he scored a few goals in the 2. Bundesliga, building on his prolific seasons at U-17 and U-19 level. Germany and Türkiye are currently vying for his international future.
Anyway, his real-life promise is reflected in FM24 with an exciting skillset that combines creativity with finishing ability. You can play him pretty much anywhere in attack, but his best role would probably be as that secondary attacker in left-sided spaces where he can angle back onto his right.
You can probably get him for about €3 million at the start of your saves, which makes him a proper bargain. Have a look at Finn Jeltsch and Nathaniel Brown while your in Nürnberg, by the way.
SCOUTED’s Reading List
We love Very Handsome Rob Edwards, so this Oliver Kay interview with the Luton Town manager is right up our street — it includes bits on Tom Lockyer, evolutionising the club, and surviving the Premier League.
Would Dan Ashworth appoint Dan Ashworth? That’s the question posed by Jonathan Liew for The Guardian, as he tries to put a value on the sporting director INEOS want to shape their Manchester United.
And finally, a little self indulgence… you should read Stevie’s definitive profile of Lamine Yamal because he went to town on it, and it really underlines just how extraordinary he is for his age.