Canadian Wonder kids

[Dominic94]

I think it's the time to create this thread, it's been years in the making but we are finally producing "wonder kids", we have 2 that became world class, and obviously we have some that failed(Ballou ?). I would say the criteria has to be a highly rated and highly touted played so i'll start the list based on my limited knowledge, hopefully this can become an all encompassing thread for the next davies and david as we produce more Atiba's more often. We can mention upcoming highly touted players in here, I think the catch should be that the player has to be 18 and under

 

2002

Aribim Pepple M/W Calgary Cavalry CanPL

2003 

Antoine Coupland M Athletico Ottawa CanPL

Kamron Habibullah M Vancouver Whitecaps Residency

Lowell Wright ST York 9 CanPL

2004 

Jakhele Marshall Rutty M Toronto FC MLS

Gabriel Pellegrino M SC Freiburg BUN

 

Feel free to add players and to update on progress, I included players who are touted as potential world class, which i define as 80 rated and higher in fifa lol. In all seriousness though just a player with the potential to start on a mid table and above team in any big 5 league I think is fair ? Forgive my lack of knowledge, I listed players that I know or have heard are very very highly rated. I imagine Wright and Coupland are in that stratosphere, I know Pepple has been compared to Davies and I was told Pellegrino is a challenger to Rutty for best CONCACAF 2004 born. Any names to watch that are coming up ?

[SpursFlu]

Was a "Canadian Messi" thread already taken?

[Obinna]

Jayden Nelsen probably deserves mention if you are putting Pepple on the 2002 list.

[badname22]

Lucas Dias / 2003/ Sporting CP U23 springs to mind

[SpecialK]

[SpecialK]

There is question about his eligibility. But he’s a CB!!! 

[Shortdutchcanuck]

2 Hamilton area friends:

2002 forward Theodor Corbeanu with Wolves U23 

2002 attacking midfielder Stefan Mitrovic with Radnicki Nis in Serbia

[El Diego]

Was looking for some Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty clips and found that the 2019 u15 US DA finals were on YouTube in full:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0IzFPyq8_8&t=1280s

I didn't know the result before I watched. Fun match. Not only a chance to watch Marshall-Rutty but I'm pretty sure Gabriel Pellegrino (mentioned in the first post) played for TFC in this one, too.

[Nate3322]

I'll throw Roen Fordyce Hylwka (RW/CAM) into the mix. Top scorer in the u19 oberliga last year, this year he's been quite good in a pretty horrible Sandhausen II side having scored 5 out of the 11 goals Sandhausen II scored (he also probably has a few assists but Sandhausen II assists aren't recorded on transfermarkt). I suspect he'll be promoted to the full Sandhausen squad soon if keeps playing like he is now.

Edited October 16, 2020 by Nate3322

[jordan]

12 hours ago, SpecialK said:

There is question about his eligibility. But he’s a CB!!! 

He said he doesn't qualify

[Colliedor]

Rutty is still perhaps the biggest wonderkid.

Habibullah is still a question mark for me. It really depends on his maturity. He has the skill, but players like him and Nelson have to realize holding on to the ball and hogging it a little doesn't work well at the senior level. So if he adapts his game and knows when to dribble etc he could have A LOT of potential.

Think I've mentioned this in the past but I still want to keep a close eye on Jason Gajadhar and Kosi Thompson from TFC. Really liked what I saw from those 2.

 

There are a bunch of players that I haven't seen though that do have some kind of hype around them. Noah Abatneh, Matt Passacquale, Lucas Dias, and maybe Jesse Costa as well. Maybe worth keeping a close eye on them.

[One American]

There's a difference between a player on a good professional trajectory and a wonderkid. Marshall Rutty seems like the only one of the latter.  Dias, in the dual nats category. 

[An Observer]

5 hours ago, One American said:

There's a difference between a player on a good professional trajectory and a wonderkid. Marshall Rutty seems like the only one of the latter.  Dias, in the dual nats category. 

Flores as well in the dual category; and possibly Assi from the impact who pardoned the pun made a bigger impact with the U15s than Rutty. 

[Floortom]

Outside of Flores (who seems only likely to rep us if his other plans fall apart) I would not use the term "wonderkid" to describe any of our prospects. 

[CanadaFan123]

15 minutes ago, Floortom said:

Outside of Flores (who seems only likely to rep us if his other plans fall apart) I would not use the term "wonderkid" to describe any of our prospects. 

Rutty is most definitely a wonder kid. From what I’ve heard he’s higher rated than Flores.

[VinceA]

10 minutes ago, CanadaFan123 said:

Rutty is most definitely a wonder kid. From what I’ve heard he’s higher rated than Flores.

Someone should tell Vanney that.

[Floortom]

1 hour ago, CanadaFan123 said:

.From what I’ve heard he’s higher rated than Flores.

Really ? By who?

[CanadaFan123]

8 minutes ago, Floortom said:

Really ? By who?

He's considered by many to be the best 2004 born player in CONCACAF. 

[El Diego]

2 hours ago, CanadaFan123 said:

He's considered by many to be the best 2004 born player in CONCACAF. 

I keep hearing comments like this. I'm not saying it's untrue, but does anyone have sources? I have seen JMR play exactly one match (u15 USDA Playoff finals vs LAFC) and he looked good, but not like he was a league above everyone else. I'm not trying to bring the kid down, but to me the term 'wonderkid' means a 100% can't miss prospect, and in my estimation the only wonderkid that Canada has ever produced is Alphonso Davies.

[CanadaFan123]

39 minutes ago, El Diego said:

I keep hearing comments like this. I'm not saying it's untrue, but does anyone have sources? I have seen JMR play exactly one match (u15 USDA Playoff finals vs LAFC) and he looked good, but not like he was a league above everyone else. I'm not trying to bring the kid down, but to me the term 'wonderkid' means a 100% can't miss prospect, and in my estimation the only wonderkid that Canada has ever produced is Alphonso Davies.

Jonathan David is about as clear cut a wonderkid as there is. If you're up for the Golden Boy and sold for 30 million euros you're a wonderkid. 

[El Diego]

8 minutes ago, CanadaFan123 said:

Jonathan David is about as clear cut a wonderkid as there is. If you're up for the Golden Boy and sold for 30 million euros you're a wonderkid. 

Perhaps. I was thinking more along the lines of 15-18 years old. I remember one guy comparing David's level to Davies. Many of us thought he was crazy, but tbf I don't think any of us had ever seen him play. So maybe if there was more tape on him when he was younger we would have been even more hyped for him. Whatever, it's all semantics in the end.

Sometimes I forget just how young David is.

[Kent]

I agree with El Diego. Even if Jahkele Marshall Rutty is the best 15/16 year old in CONCACAF, that doesn’t make him a wonderkid. In my mind to be a wonderkid they should look certain to provide a big impact. Probably at least be an impactful player in a big 4 League. There isn’t necessarily a 15/16 year old that meets that description in CONCACAF at any given time. Someone like Jonathan David even, for the U17s he got a brace against Suriname, and didn’t score against Cuba or Costa Rica. I honestly don’t know if he played in those games or not. Either way he either didn’t play because he wasn’t that far ahead of the other guys, or he wasn’t able to score in those games. The U17s went home after that group stage. I don’t think he was a wonderkid, despite what he ended up achieving.

Marshall Rutty I am in the “show me don’t tell me” stage now. I have heard he is highly rated, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of work to do still.