Best Wonderkids in 2024: Every EURO 2024 Team

Recently, I've been watching a lot of matches on Football Manager as a way into the future. Italy have dominated the next five years, winning both EURO 2020/1 and the 2022 World Cup (curiously, playing Belgium in the final both times). Now, I'm into Euro 2024. But, with so much change in the future, what's happened to these countries? We'll look at each country's best wonderkid, and I'll also summarise briefly what the rest of the country looks like. Note that this is a 200PA-World database meaning that wonderkids can come from anywhere.

(PA- Potential Ability, rated out of 200)

Albania: Zlatko Katic

An Albanian-Croatian dual national, Katic is a 21yo Internazionale goalkeeper with 176PA. He doesn't tend to punch the ball and isn't very eccentric. There's not a lot to say about Albania except, with Katic and Thomas Strakosha, both of their best players play in goal. Which isn't brilliant.

Austria: Felix Kruse

Much like Scotland, Austria's best players tend to be left backs, and Felix Kruse is no exception. The 21-year-old Sturm Graz player, while suffering from low technicals and leadership, has an iron spirit (high bravery, concentration, determination and iron-willed personality) as well as strong physicals. There are several other Austrian wonderkids who have met their potential (but only around 150PA).

Belgium: Marvin Wattieu

Wattieu is unlucky to only have eleven caps, as he shares his position with an even better player in Eden Hazard. Like Hazard, he's come of age in France (admittedly, with OL-Lyon rather than LOSC-Lille), but unlike Hazard he's nearly two meters tall and has 178PA. Hazard has retired from international football recently, meaning there is work to be done on the Belgian squad; regularly seen playing a 5-2-3, this left Kevin de Bruyne in the striker position. Now de Bruyne plays out on the right, but EURO 2024 might be this talented squad's last chance for silverware, with nobody else of Wattiau's class coming through.

Bulgaria: Miroslav Traykov

Bulgaria's youth players are not among the best in this list, with Napoli defender Traykov their best at 169PA. His technicals, bar for his actual technique attribute, are below standard, but these are made up for by his mental and physical attributes. The fact that there are five regens in the Bulgarian starting lineup is an indicator about their football level at the start of this database.

Croatia: Marin Basic

Croatia have a few decent regens coming through but the only one on the current generation's high standard is 177PA right back Marin Basic. Despite being just 17 years of age, he has impressive mentals and defensive technicals, but he could do with some work on other areas of his game. Obviously Croatia's squad isn't like the aging golden generation they have now, but they have made successive knockout stages at major tournaments.

Czech Republic: David Hric

While a honorable mention must go to striker Wellington, who has already hit his potential and is a key national team player, Czech Republic finally have their next Nedved in David Hric. Just sixteen years of age, Hric is natural anywhere in midfield, has 186PA and, while some of his physicals aren't the standard you expect from young players (stamina, strength), he makes up for that by having better technicals than most. Czech Republic have needed Wellington to reach his 148PA too, as their big hope in real life Adam Hlozek hasn't developed very well and looks set to fall short of his 156PA.

Denmark: Martin Lundberg

18yo Liverpool central midfielder Lundberg is a footballing prodigy- he already has 160CA on his way to 187PA. Not a lot to say attribute wise other than he's really damn good! Denmark are one of two Nordic countries to qualify for this competition- and both have golden generations, with 176PA goalie Torben Lovgren Larsen joining Lundberg.

England: Danny O'Hanlon

England could have an entire team of 170PA+ wonderkids, but the best by far is 188PA Southampton striker Danny O'Hanlon. He has an odd mix of technical and mental attributes: good passing, technique, off the ball and finishing but awful set pieces, marking and positioning. While England have a ton of wonderkids, none of them have broken into the first team yet, with the current guard of Sterling, Kane, TAA and Sancho linking up with IRL wonderkids Greenwood, Foden and Rice. This has been successful with the team making semi finals in the EURO 2020 and 2022 WC.

France: Tony Tissot

186PA centre back Tissot is France's best prospect. He has good mentals, physicals and the necessary technicals to succeed, but needs to improve his fitness and ball skills to become truly world class. France themselves have generally been unlucky. They lost on penalties to Germany in Euro 2020, then lost Mbappe and were beaten by Belgium in the quarters of the 2022 WC. They're a very well rounded team, though, and among the favourites for Euro 2024.

Germany: Lars Aulinger

Germany have two wonderkids with 182PA, but I'll pick Aulinger over his fellow striker Fred Bobolas as he is both younger and has better CA. The 19-year-old Bayern academy product has suprisingly low finishing of 12, and also has low jumping reach, but apart from that is a brilliant player. Germany's team of random regens (yes, I forgot the real name fix) has delivered two quarter final appearances, which is solid yet unimpressive. With proper regens coming into the fold, they should improve.

Greece: Antonis Deligiannidis

Greece's key player is a regen striker, but not this one. In fact, if both hit their potential the other guy could be shunted back into CM. Deligiannidis is an 18yo striker from PAOK wanted by Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City, for obvious reasons with 180PA. He is a complete forward, able to set up and score goals, and has mad potential considering he already has 16 finishing, passing and acceleration. Greece are floundering around 55th in the world rankings, not helped by the fact that barring said CM/ST Dimitrios Pasalidis, all their best players are centre backs.

Holland: Jip van den Bos

22-year-old AZ playmaker van den Bos has already hit is 180 potential, marking himself as one of the brightest of a very bright generation. His jumping reach is awful (he's only 171cm, the same height as Messi) but almost every other useful attribute is brilliant. As for his teammates, basically all of the Golden Generation has hit their potential, with the exception of Owen Wijdal (13 off his PA). The highest profile casualty of this is Memphis, who is no longer in the squad. Ajax have dominated the Eredivisie with 4 of the last 5 titles.

Italy: Sabino del Vecchio

The dominant force of world football over the last five years, Italy have some excellent regens both in terms of CA and in terms of PA. The best is 189PA centre back (suprise) Sabino del Vecchio, who while currently contracted to Milan already has a move to Tottenham confirmed. He's big, tall and scary, but could do with some more technique. Italy have won both Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup, and they did it with a suprise key player- Nicolo Zaniolo. Despite scoring just 40 in 207 games (mainly as he plays CM with his club PSG rather than RW in the national team), he's scored 31 in 42 international caps, including two key goals in the 2022 World Cup final.

Norway: Lars Romanov

Coincidentally, Norway's best regen has 178PA- the same as their best IRL player, Erling Braut Haaland. There isn't competition between Haaland and Lars Romanov though, with the 20yo Norwich player playing in the centre of midfield. Romanov is solid in most areas, a particular highlight his 17 First Touch and high work rate, but he needs to improve a few technical attributes to become truly world class. Norway themselves have a golden generation right now; while Sander Berge hasn't quite hit his potential, he is over 150CA as are five other players, including Haaland and Romanov.

Poland: Filip Lesniak

Poland's regens so far this simulation are shocking- most have between 120 and 140 PA. This guy has 155, but that's not much better in the context of everyone else on this list. Jag Bialystok CM Lesniak has potential to become a national team level player, but he's not the kind of player that moves mountains. Maybe that, plus the Lewandowski retirement, has hurt Poland- they've made all three tournaments so far but not made the knockouts at all.

Portugal: Bruno Santos

Special mention goes to 20yo Liverpool keeper Bruno Ramos, but fellow Bruno, Bruno Santos has just slightly more potential. A 186PA winger playing for Benfica, his first touch and physicals are exceptional, but he needs to improve his footballing brain to live up to the hype. Portugal, like Holland, have a crop of young stars IRL, but most of them are slightly worse than the Dutch counterparts, while Ronaldo is retired, leaving much of the goalscoring burden to Joao Felix and Bernardo Silva. With that said, Rafa has proven to be their Divock Origi, scoring important goals at important times.

Russia: Valery Orukhev

Left winger Orukhev is still with CSKA but is wanted by Real Madrid, and with 184PA it's not hard to understand why. While his 20 aggression may be an issue, he's got the potential to become one of the best with the ball at his feet. Russia are another team to have a lot of future stars in the game at the beginning; these don't get as much cover as they are only Russian-class talents but they do the job for them, and would be good in any of the top leagues. It's been an awful simulation for Nikolay Rasskazov, with the wingback only reaching 119 of his 140 PA, but all of the others have made their way to being important national team players.

Scotland: Graeme Gebbie

A tall centre back, Gebbie is another whose mentals and physicals are brilliant but needs to improve his technique to reach his 178PA. He also probably needs to pick better moves than Dundee United, who he joined in 2023 from Ross County. Scotland is still hamstrung by having two world class players (Kieran Tierney and Andy Robertson) in the same position. To combat this, Robertson is being played in midfield.

Serbia: Mihajlo Djukic

Serbia have three regens in their EURO 2024 squad- Partizan pair, centre back Mihailo Beronja and attacking midfielder Milutin Milenkovic, as well as Sturm Graz winger Aleksander Simic. However, their best regen just missed the squad, in the shape of Spurs' Mihajlo Djukic. Having already played for four clubs (coming through at Rad, before being loaned to Vojvodina and Partizan by Spurs), the 183PA defensive midfielder already has world class mental stats but needs to improve his technicals to get to that potential. Serbia's fortunes have depended on the same key men that are in real life- Sergej Milinkovic Savic (now with Barcelona), Luka Jovic and Nikola Milenkovic.

Spain: Arkadio Vera

Spain have four different regens with 180PA exactly, and one with just over that at 184. Centre back, and Eibar player, Arkadio Vera has potential to be the next Sergio Ramos. He's definitely not a ball playing defender (9 dribbling) but he's blessed with a brilliant footballing brain and the necessary skills. Spain's team, while brilliant (a lot of players have around 160CA), maybe lacks the absolute stars of some others; their strength is team unity and cohesion. They are also hurt by the fact that their best two players right now are goalkeepers (David de Gea and regen Benat Santamaria).

Switzerland: Elia Favre

Similarly to Poland, Switerland don't have a brilliant regen. They do have 2 155PA players though, but for the same reasons as Germany I'm picking 20yo Basel CM Elia Favre. Favre has skills- 16 first touch, 18 passing, and 16 vision- but he suffers from bad positioning, off the ball and having no standout physical attributes. Switzerland in this save have been like Switzerland in real life- true neutral. Not much remarkable has happened.

Turkey: Mertcan Demirozu

Turkey have two 180PA wonderkids, but there's something clearly special about this guy. A 19yo Schalke 04 striker, Demirozu has decent league numbers- 7 in 35 games over the last 3 years, mostly as a sub- but he has shone internationally, with 17 in 16 games. He has exceptional technicals for his age, but has a mixed bag of mentals. While Turkey still struggle with injuries and suspenions due to the team's aggressive bent, they finally have players to make a fist of it, with, in addition to Mertcan, 18yo Dortmund winger Aykut Kocak, and IRL superstars Merih Demiral, Cengiz Under and Ugurcan Cakir.

Ukraine: Ildar Kostenko

Having made the EURO 2020 Semis, then got out of their World Cup group, Ukraine are a nation on the up. However, their best regen is one of the worst on this list. Not to take anything away from Shakhtar striker Kostenko- 157PA is nothing to sniff at, but compared to others on this list it's fairly low. Ukraine may begin to struggle after 2024, having lost or losing both of their starting wingers (Konoplyanka and Yarmolenko) to retirement.

Wales: Aaron Thomas

Unarguably, Poland, Switzerland and Wales have the three worst 'best wonderkids' on this list. Aaron Thomas is, however, the only left back to feature, which does make him somewhat special. Contracted to Everton, he has some outstanding attributes (e.g. 18 Bravery) and some truly shocking ones (e.g. 4 Off the Ball). As a team, Wales is equally unarguably the weakest at Euro 2024, and some would say that with teams such as Sweden missing, they don't deserve to be there.