Sport-Express named 55 promising football players as zoomers

Experts of the Sport-Express edition have compiled a rating of the most talented young football players. There are 55 athletes in the top. Ilya Anikeev, a correspondent for Izvestia, told the details on November 11.

"According to the Sport-Express edition, there are 55 names in the ranking of the most talented young football players. All the players have a Russian passport, they are 17-19 years old. Some of them are just taking their first steps in professional sports and coming on as substitutes in championship matches, while others have already taken a firm place in the main squads of their teams," the journalist noted.

17-19 years old are typical schoolchildren and first—year students. But Vadim Shilov from Zenit decided on his profession a long time ago. And although he entered the field three times this season, he topped the ranking based on the results of games for the reserve team and the youth team.

"It seems to me that this is the fruit of play and work. If you work on yourself, you will always have chances. The most important support is the support of the coach and parents. First of all, it's probably my parents, because I don't see them all the time. They are very far away," said Shilov.

Dmitry Pestryakov from Akron Togliatti took the second place. The third is Vladimir Ignatenko from the Samara Wings of the Soviets. For a place at the heart of Russian youth, you have to compete with expensive foreign players. Viktor Okishor, who is fourth on the list, has gained a foothold in the Dynamo squad.

"It doesn't matter what kind of passport you have: Russian, Brazilian, Argentine. It doesn't matter. As for how to compete, they are the same players: two arms, two legs," Okishor said.

But if a football player plays in the goal of Dynamo Moscow, this is not just a position on the field, but an honorable role that needs to be fulfilled. Kurban Rasulov, who is 11th in the ranking, is inspired by the best goalkeeper in the history of football and teammate Lev Ivanovich Yashin.

"I've been at the academy for a long time, and our academy is named after Lev Ivanovich, so I was striving for this. I want to continue playing for Dynamo Moscow, there are some goals there, and I want to get into the main national team," Rasulov said.

According to the Sport-Express rating, Moscow clubs have the most promising players. The current champion is Krasnodar, which sets the bar in the regions with its football academy. The Samara region also reveals talents.

"It's also about the guys themselves, who need to understand that this is a big, big advance they get when they write about them, they say they're talented and that's it, but it needs to be proven on the football field," said Konstantin Zyryanov, chairman of the Management Board of Zenit Football Club. St. Petersburg".

The 55 rating is a kind of symbolic national team of football prodigies of the country. There are 5 players for each of the 11 positions on the field.

"We're interviewing scouts, we're interviewing academy coaches, we're interviewing academy leaders, and after that we're essentially looking for a common denominator. We do not communicate with agents, we definitely want this to be the most transparent story possible," said Egor Chernov, head of the operational department of Sport—Express.

Since 2022, Russian clubs and the national team have been isolated from participating in international tournaments for unsportsmanlike reasons. But the youth are still being watched by scouts from abroad.

"I'm more in favor of leaving than not. Just to leave, to leave, and everyone said: "I'm playing in Europe," I wouldn't recommend it either. As for my experience, it's more difficult to leave when you have something here," said Andrey Arshavin, Deputy Chairman of the Zenit St. Petersburg FC Board for Sports Development.

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On October 27, the RFU website published an expanded list of the national team, which included 39 players. It traditionally includes players who have performed best in recent matches for their clubs and whose abilities and potential are well known to the coaching staff, the publication noted. However, the midfielder of the Spanish Real Sociedad Arsen Zakharyan did not get into it.

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