The Next Gen of Next Gems

With the final members of Australias Golden Generation all but gone, and the Socceroos in transition, where do we look for the Next Gen of Next Gems the players with the potential to take Australian football past what came before it?

De Niese is now starting 11 for River plates reserves and has already achieved the dream of scoring a winning goal against Boca Juniors in February in a u 19 tournament in Mexico.A dream of every River Plate fan achieved by an Aussie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWXUZFV6UXM

Edited by surfgreen: 18/3/2015 07:55:30 PM

Huh never had heard of Gian Mendez before. another in that age bracket at a big academy, and the son of a former socceroo. Sounds promising.

Piscopo sounds the least keen of all of them for any future with Australia...

Pwoah go gavin go.

How is Rafa Jimenez going? Haven't heard much about him in a while.

Also will Gavin De Niese fit into the age bracket to play for Australia in the 2016 U19 Asian Champs next year and (assuming Australia qualifies) the 2017 U20 World Cup?

It would be great if he could be involved in that set-up. His form in Argentina suggests it would be ludicrous not to select him, if he's eligible.

If some of these guys make first teams at big European clubs before 2018, we are going to have a cracking team for Russia 2018 (assuming we qualify).

We really need an attacking player who is not just a playmaker but can also dominate in 1 vs 1 situations. Somebody who can just dribble/turn right past opposition players at a high speed with close control. That's what we're really missing. Hopefully Panos Armenakas or Chris Ikonomidis make it and hopefully they are that type of attacking player.

This is way too early (and probably inaccurate) but whatever. Imagine going into the 2018 World Cup with:


-------------------------------------------------Demetriou--------------------------------------------------------



Armenakas------------------------------------Luongo-------------------------------------------Ikonomidis



-----------------------------Di Niese-----------------------------------Jedinak----------------------------------



Good----------------------------Spiranovic---------------------------Sainsbury-------------------McGowan



-------------------------------------------------------Ryan------------------------------------------------------------


Off the bench: De Silva, Brillante, Juric, Oar, Rogic, Leckie, Smith, Behich, etc.

Edited by quickflick: 19/3/2015 12:05:04 AM

is the a back four consisting of four central defenders?

All those players are central defenders, primarily. However Good and McGowan have both been used as fullbacks quite a bit with pretty decent degrees of success. Good, for instance, is a very high quality player. At this stage, I'd prefer to play a fit Good at left back, rather than Davidson, Smith or Behich. Either way, that's a back four of four highly talented defenders and all of them are well-equipped to play in those positions.

Not getting my hope up TBH. As someone who was on the European youth team bandwagon when the A-league began, I'm still waiting for one of these wunderkinds to live up to their hype and promise. At the moment I hope Luongo is EPL quality and I hope I don't have to wait another decade to see a promising Australian player come through the European youth pathway.

Edited by Higashi: 19/3/2015 12:42:05 AM

another youth article on 442 , that about a overseas youth , how about more youth article about local kids

Gavin De Niese 18 years old , playing for River plates reserves, but is that really better then being 18 years old and playing for Brisbane Roar in ACL and scoring goals?

i don't know what the standard of River plates reserves team, but i doubt it's as high you all think, and i doubt it better then playing ACL games

Steven Ugarkovic playing in Croatia 2nd league, well below A-league, he been select in Olyroos team , so we will see


Edited by adrtho: 19/3/2015 07:40:00 AM

Thread needs more Gallifuoco. He's played just about every U21 game for Swansea this season, while Demetriou has barely been in the matchday squads.

Hasn't he captained them a few times as well?

I think I've seen him with the armband, yeah.

Injured atm, had surgery. Pretty sure he's out for the rest of the season.

All these kids have practically said they want to play for the Socceroos if they ever get the chance, except Piscopo. All still young so hopefully at least half of these guys can break into first team sqauds at the current clubs within the next couple of years.

Don't be stupid. River Plate has been rated as the best youth academy in South America and has produced more players for the Big-5 leagues outside of that framework than any other club in the world.

Out of any of the young Australians in youth academies abroad, Gavin has the best chance to make it in my opinion.

However, please continue with your myopic view on football outside of Australia's borders and number crunching ELO figures.

[size=3]*Disclaimer: Having grown up in Argentina, my views may be slightly biased. [/size];)

I would have thought Alex Gersbach would have sorted our problems at left back nicely, but he's been inconsistent last few games. Understandable given his age and who he's had to mark last 3 or 4 games.

Still future looks promising.

And more players to emerge from the current Joeys.

Clut and Borello , were not playing youth academy team last night ....

youth academies don't matter , once a player hit senior age football :p

most the big clubs use statistical- mathematical models..the fact you keep putting Elo down, means you don't know whats happening inside the really big clubs

Articles about kids at known overseas clubs are a lot more appealing than those about kids from the suburbs of Sydney, Melbourne, Perth

Where IS Kaz Fapfapta these days?

Player agent and lawyer I believe.

is the a back four consisting of four central defenders?[/quote
Ya bench is better then the starting side and kruse is??? Not a chance in hell buddy

No just a lawyer, it's the way of being a player agent with out the certificates.

You're missing the point entirely, pal. This is nothing than a fun exercise trying to imagine the best possible way things could go ahead of Russia 2018.

I agree that at this point time time, the bench has better players than the XI. But I'm not talking about this point in time, I'm talking about 2018. In 2018, we will be looking at different players, at a different Australian footballing landscape. I'm attempting to depict a best case scenario.

Obviously, the likes of Demetriou and Armenakas shouldn't be in the XI now. Obviously the likes of Kruse and Oar should be in the XI now. However we're not talking about 2018. A lot can happen in football between now and then. We're all hoping the likes of Armenakas and Ikonomidis will be cracking first team football for Serie A clubs by then.

I think, based on players I've seen a reasonable amount of, Rogic is one of the most talented Australian footballers ever. So obviously I'd love to put him in that XI. But I think he has very poor fitness and I have doubts about his mental toughness. So in reality, I see Luongo as being more likely to being in good form at a very good club than Rogic in 2018. Hopefully Rogic proves me wrong, however. Josh Brillante is another who could easily be there instead of De Niese or Jedinak. As I say, this is simply an exercise in imagining what it could look like in 2018.

Kruse is made reference to by 'et cetera', he is one of those others. To be fair, I think he is better than Leckie.

Khon Kaen United in the Thai 3rd tier. No, really.

Wow.

Is that his second long term injury in 12 months? I feel like he only got back playing in January or February.

I would follow him more closely but I find it too hard to find information on him as his first and surname is so common in Spain and Spanish speaking places in general

Cap them.