From Lamine Jamal, the 16-year-old Spanish star, to the promising Brazilian goalscorer and saviour Andric (17), to Kobe Maino (18), the brilliant new face of England, it seems that young players are firmly establishing themselves on the throne of world football.
During the recent warm-up matches for Euro 2024, this group of young players, who could be joined by Paris Saint-Germain's French midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery (18) and Barcelona's Spanish defender Pau Cobarci (17), impressed observers with their rapid arrival. To play at international level.
This early maturity, which was rare in recent years, seems to be becoming the norm, but there are risks involved for boys who have just left their teenage years.
Spaniard Bojan Krkic, who began his career at Barcelona, is one of the players who paid the price for his rapid rise when he became Argentina's new Lionel Messi at the start of his career in 2007 at the age of 16.
The winger, now 33 and recently playing for Japanese club Vissel Kobe, told El Mundo newspaper this week: "Everything happened very quickly. I started participating, scoring goals, having a role in the team and attracting the attention of the national team... A lot was expected of me and I was just a kid."
At a time when he was expected to have an exceptional career, Bojan suffered from anxiety attacks, his career slowed down and he eventually retired at the age of 31.
Boyan is one example among many that raises many questions about these phenomena: How can we manage their physical development? How can we support them mentally when everything is accelerating?
The Spaniard Jose Pedrosa Galan, a former player and sports psychiatrist, says: "At this age, the player must be psychologically monitored in order to gain knowledge that will help him deal with pressure, stress and high demands.
He adds, "He must have a balance between his sport and his personal life. The family must also play an important role. Parents have to keep their feet on the ground and provide a stable and natural environment.
Barcelona tries to provide these conditions for its promising players. However, due to financial constraints, the Catalan club has had no choice but to rely on the "La Masia" academy to strengthen its ranks in recent years.
The team's coach and one of the club's legends, Xavi Hernandez, has not made a mistake this season in placing his faith in the two young men, Jamal and Kubarsi. According to him, they can "write a chapter in the history of this club, but also in the world of the game".
Next season, Jamal and Kuparsi will be competing with the promising Brazilian Indrik, who, like his compatriot Vinicius Junior, is now considered a rival of Real Madrid, where he will join this summer.
But these talents must beware of the tongues of fire that can burn their wings, as happened at Barcelona in particular, where it seemed that a golden generation had emerged around striker Ansu Fati and midfielders Pedri and Gavi, until circumstances changed.
Fati began his professional career at the age of 16 and was expected to have a bright future as he inherited the number 10 shirt worn by club legend Messi. But repeated injuries soon brought him back to reality. Today, five years after making his first appearance for the Catalan club, he is on loan at English side Brighton, where he has scored just four goals in 23 appearances in all competitions.
His former teammate Pedri was also born in 2002. His professional career started quickly. He played continuously with his team and quickly received an international call-up. He performed remarkably, reaching the semifinals of the European Cup and the final of the Tokyo Olympics in the summer of 2021.
Since then, the player, who started his career at Las Palmas where he played one season before moving to Barcelona, has been suffering from muscular problems. In his last game, against Athletic Bilbao on March 3, he left the pitch in tears after suffering a new injury.
The same happened to his fellow midfielder Gavi (19), who quickly became an integral part of the Barcelona and Spain squads, until he suffered a painful cruciate knee ligament injury in Mona last November.
With a busy summer schedule ahead, with teams competing in the European Championship in Germany and the Paris Olympics, the struggles of Barcelona's young players could be a lesson for clubs that rely heavily on their young players.
Galland recommends "the need to develop forms of support, guidance and emotional management so that the player can create an identity that is not exclusively linked to his sporting career".
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