Five years ago the Covid-19 pandemic was spreading, causing untold pain – mental and physical – that we are still feeling the effects of.
Football, like every other aspect of life, was affected and stopped for a period of time. Players, coaches and staff had their lives turned upside down. Career paths were inevitably changed. What kind of an impact would a fit Trent Alexander-Arnold have had at Euro 2020 if it had been played that year? As it turned out he injured himself just before the postponed tournament in 2021 and had to withdraw from the England squad.
Millions of footballers will have had their trajectories altered, including our Next Generation picks from that year. The series started in 2014 and each year we select a first-year scholar from every Premier League club, as well as 60 of the best talents from around the world, and follow them for five years.
In 2020, our players will have been about 17 years old, many of them hoping to break into their first teams. Some will have been better off because of the pandemic break, some worse.
If the quality is there, though, they are likely to make it in the end. In 2020 we had four German players on our list of 60 of the best players in the world born in 2003. Two were Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz. They were at Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen and set for stardom.
Musiala was born in Germany but moved to England at the age of seven. He played for several clubs in London before landing at Chelsea. He also represented Germany and England at youth-age groups before moving back to mainland Europe and pledging his allegiance to the country of his birth.
As with Wirtz, there was never any doubt that he would make it to the top. He may have had a more settled path to the top – joining Cologne at the age of seven before moving to nearby Bayer Leverkusen 10 years later (although that was a controversial switch) – but he suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury in March 2022, which robbed him of almost a year of competitive football. In the end he came back better than ever and won the German double with Leverkusen before moving to Liverpool for an initial £100m this June.
The other two Germans on the list, Luca Netz and Torben Rhein, have also done well with the former having racked up more than 100 Bundesliga appearances while the latter is plying his trade in the Dutch second division with Emmen.
Eighteen months ago we may have placed Jhon Durán in the category of players who would have made it no matter what, but since having had his breakthrough at Aston Villa his career has taken an unexpected turn. Sold to Al-Nassr in January this year he is on loan at Fenerbahce but was recently castigated by José Mourinho and told to work harder in training.
The Colombian is sixth on our list of Next Gen 2020 players with most international senior appearances but has not appeared for the national team since the half-time whistle blew against Peru in early June, after which there were reports of a dressing-room bust-up.
Just below Durán is Wilfried Gnonto, another player who has had an interesting journey but is now back playing regular Premier League football. He was born in Italy and joined Inter at the age of nine but then took the decision to move abroad as a 16-year-old by signing for Zürich.
After two successful seasons in Switzerland he joined Leeds, where he has been on a rollercoaster ride. He had a fine debut season in the Premier League, playing 24 times but not able to prevent Leeds from being relegated. Then followed two campaigns of Championship football among persistent rumours of him leaving, which continued this summer despite the club’s promotion. He has now made more than 120 appearances for Leeds and his decision to move abroad at an early age has paid off.
As for the 20 Premier League players we picked in 2020, they too have had different journeys, with several moving countries to get the best out of their career. They may not have enjoyed quite the same success as some of our previous graduates – such as Alexander-Arnold and Bukayo Saka – but have still amassed more than 100 top-flight appearances between them.
Antwoine Hackford, who was with Sheffield United in 2020, and Michael Ndiweni, then at Newcastle, are the only players to have featured in the Premier League but several players have gone on to forge careers around Europe. Not on the above list but still worth a mention is Charlie Patino, who was with Arsenal five years ago but is now playing for Deportivo La Coruña in the Spanish second division. He joined them in 2024 and this season he has featured in all league games as Deportivo are undefeated and top of the league. La Liga for him next season?
A look at where the 20 players are now reveals a big spread of leagues, from the Premier League 2 (Reece Welch at Everton, Luke Mbete-Tabu at Manchester City and Leicester’s Kian Pennant) to the ninth tier of English football.
It goes to show that nothing is guaranteed in football, even though with Musiala and Wirtz their talent was so substantial it would have taken a remarkable series of events for them not to reach the top.
