Best FM24 wonderkids & young players to sign in Football Manager 2024

Best FM24 wonderkids & young players to sign in Football Manager 2024

Here is a comprehensive guide of all the best wonderkids and youngster to sign in FM24, so you can have plenty of talent in your squad for years to come.

27th Oct 2023 17:11

Images via Sega

Adding some of the best wonderkids to your team in Football Manager 2024 is essential if you want to secure the future for your squad, but it's often a tricky process to gauge which stars will shine the most in the coming years; and when building for the future, you need to make sure these players fit in with your current tactics and vision.

While there are quite a few young players in the game that are guaranteed to be great, there are even more hidden gems to uncover, and realities where even the obvious picks don’t work out - so here are our top suggestions.

What are wonderkids in Football Manager?

Fresnada in FM24

Wonderkids are typically players under the age of 21 that have a high Potential Ability (PA) value in the game, and are thus likely to become world-class players in the future.

Not every wonderkid with a high PA will become a top player, as there are many determining factors like their Current Ability (CA), stats like Determination, how you develop them at your club, and if they pick up any career-changing injuries.

Current and Potential Ability are measured from 1 to 200, with the latter being reserved for the best of the best. Any player with a PA over 160 is likely to be a leading player in a top 5 league if they achieve their potential, but exceeding 180 is likely where you will find the next selection of world-class talents.

There is also one caveat when it comes to wonderkids in Football Manager, as some less-established or younger players don’t have a specific PA between 1 and 200, but instead are within a group between -1 and -10. This means that a wonderkid’s potential can hypothetically shift 20 points, so there is a chance that some of these wonderkids might not be as good as, or even better than we have listed them below - no two FM saves will be the same. 

For help with finding wondered, if you want to find them organically, hiring a good Director of Football can really help. 

The best wonderkids for each position in FM24

FM24 Gavi

Here are our picks for the top wonderkids that you can buy in FM24, which we have limited to U21 players with high potential in-game. Similarly, while many of the picks here will be quite obvious to anyone who keeps up with world football, that doesn’t mean that these players aren’t still destined for greatness.

Goalkeepers

Name Club Nationality  Age 
Bert Verbruggen Brighton Netherlands 20
Faaris Yusufu Schalke Germany 18
Andre Gomes  Benfica Portugal 18
Dennis Seiman VfB Stuttgart Germany 17
Guillaume Restes Toulouse France 18
James Beadle  Brighton England 18
Gabriel Slonina  Chelsea USA 19
Rome-Jayden Owuso-Oduro AZ Netherlands  18
Charlie Setford Ajax England 18

Centre-backs 

Name Club Nationality Age
Tanguy Nianzou  Sevilla France 21
Levi Colwill Chelsea England 20
Antonio Silva Benfica Portugal 19
Giorgio Scalvini  Atalanta Italy 19
Ashley Phillips Spurs England 17
Mamadou Sarr Lyon France 17
Ousmane Diomande Sporting Ivory Coast 19
El Chadaille Bitshiabu RB Leipzig France 18
Diego Coppola  Helles Verona Italy 19

Right backs 

Name  Club Nationality Age
Ivan Fresneda  Sporting  Spain 18
Rico Lewis Manchester City England 18
Martim Fernandes  Porto Portugal 17
Nathan Patterson Everton Scotland 21
Joe Scally Borussia Monchengladbach USA 20
Antoine Mendy OGC Nice France 19
Filippo Terracciano Hellas Verona Italy 20
Calvin Ramsey  Liverpool  Scotland 19
Elijah Dijkstra AZ Netherlands 17

Left backs 

Name Club Nationality Age
Destiny Udogie Spurs Italy 20
Miguel Gutierrez Girona Spain 21 
Victor Kristiansen Leicester City Denmark 20
Jesus Vazquez  Valencia Spain 20
Daouda Guindo RB Salzburg Mali 20
Alejandro Balde Barcelona Spain 19
Luca Netz Borussia Mönchengladbach Germany  20
Milos Kurkez AFC Bournemouth Hungary 19
Valentin Barco Boca Juniors Argentina  18

Defensive midfielders 

Name  Club Nationality Age
Eduardo Camavinga Real Madrid

France

20
Warren Zaire-Emery PSG France 17
Rafael Luis Benfica Portugal 18
Stefan Bajcetic Liverpool Spain 18
Dario Essugo Sporting  Portugal 18
Liam Gibbs Norwich City England 20
Archie Gray Leeds England 17
Eyup Aydin  Galatasaray German 18
Sivert Mannsverk Ajax Norway 21

Central midfielders

Name Club Nationality Age
Jude Bellingham Real Madrid England 20
Pedri Barcelona Spain 20
Gavi Barcelona Spain 18
Joao Neves Benfiica Portugal 18
Ceseare Casadei Chelsea Italy 20
Fabio Miretti Juventus Italy 19
João Veloso Benfica Portugal 17
Takahuri Nakai Real Madrid Japan 19
Aaron Ciammaglichella Torino Italy 18

Left wingers 

Name Club Nationality Age
David Kalokoh Ajax Netherlands 18
Mikey Moore  Spurs England 15
Ansu Fati  Brighton (on loan) Spain 20
Andreas Schjelderup Benfica Norway 18
Diego Moreira Chelsea Portugal/Belgium 19
Elliot Anderson Newcastle Scotland 20
Sergey Pinyaev Locomotiv Moscow Russia 18
Claudio Echeverri River Plate Argentina 17
Tobias Gulliksen Bodo/Glimt Norway 19

Strikers

Name Club Nationality Age
Mathys Tel Bayern Munich France 18
Endrick Palmeiras (on loan) Brazil 16
Joe Gelhardt  Leeds England 20
Youssoufa Moukoko Borussia Dormund German 18
Vitor Roque Barcelona Brazil 18
Benjamin Sesko RB Leipzig Slovenia 20
Evan Ferguson Brighton Ireland 18
Karim Konate RB Salzburg  Ivory Coast 19
Rodrigo Ribeiro Sporting  Portugal 18

Right wingers

Name Club Nationality Age
Nico Williams Athletic Bilbao Spain 20
Yeremy Pino Villareal Spain 20
Ben Doak Liverpool Scotland 17
Harvey Elliott Liverpool England 20
Roony Bardghi Kobenhavn Swedish 17
Joao Rego Benfica Portugal 17
Liel Abada Celtic Israel 21
Yaser Asprilla Watford Columbia 19
Badredine Bouanani OGC Nice Algeria 18

I've certainly got my eyes on someone like Antonio Silva to shore up the back for many years to come, and while he will certainly be cheaper than established names like Pedri, Camavinga, and certainly Bellingham – he will still fetch a pretty price.

Most, if not all of the names listed above will be well worth their transfer price and more if they live up to their potential though, so it is up to you to decide whether the investment is indeed worth the outcome.

So, that wraps up all you need to know about the best wonderkids in FM24 so you can prepare for the future if you’re willing to invest in it.

We will be updating this guide with new names once we can properly dive into the details of players’ Potential Ability, so make sure to check back regularly as fresh players get added to the pool.

Check out our Football Manager homepage if you’re looking for more guides like this, including all of the best formations & tactics in Football Manager 2024 that you can use to succeed in the game.

Harry Boulton

About The Author

Harry Boulton

Harry is a Guides Writer at GGRecon, having completed a Masters of Research degree in Film Studies. Previously a freelance writer for PCGamesN, The Loadout, and Red Bull Gaming, he loves playing a wide variety of games from the Souls series to JRPGs, Counter-Strike, and EA FC. When not playing or writing about games and hardware, you're likely to find him watching football or listening to Madonna and Kate Bush.

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