#TalentRadar Top 5 Young Goalkeepers // As part of our Talent Radar feature, we will regularly publish Player Rankings of Young Players divided across the four primary positions (goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders & forwards) and focusing on the 6 big leagues of Europe (Bundesliga, La Liga, Premier League, Serie A, Ligue 1 & Eredivisie).
Some FAQs worth reading just to clarify any doubts about this.
What is Talent Radar? Read this for complete details on the feature.
What is the eligibility criteria? Players that were aged 21 years and below on June 1st 2014, are eligible for Talent Radar.
How often will these be published? The rankings for each position will be published once in three weeks, so one week we’ll have the rankings for Goalkeepers/Defenders go up, the next week will be Midfielders, the the Forwards the following week and back to the Goalkeepers/Defenders the week after and so on. Our Talent Radar Team of the Week will of course be published every week so you have some content to read on a weekly basis.
On what basis are these rankings made? These rankings are purely based on our opinion of the players and their performances. Our opinions are based on various factors; if you do have a question/criticism/feedback about the inclusion/exclusion of a player, then do leave a comment below.
What’s the point of all this? Good question. Well for one thing, it’s fun (isn’t it?). Secondly, we always track the progress and performances of youngsters under our Talent Radar feature. Those who are featured here and in our weekly, monthly pieces, will also be recognised in our end of season Talent Radar Young Player Awards and ofcourse will also influence our hugely popular 100 Best Young Players to Watch list (at the end of the calendar year).
The third issue of our Talent Radar Player Rankings takes into considerations three rounds of domestic league action and the opening round of the Champions League games. We haven’t taken into consideration the Europa League, nor the Capital One Cup, to maintain consistency.
More Talent Radar Player Rankings → // Defenders // Midfielders // Forwards
Loris Karius has stolen a march on the rest of the pack taking his spot at the top of the Talent Radar Young Goalkeepers’ rankings after having appeared in all three round of fixtures for Mainz in the Bundesliga, since the previous issue. One of those appearances was in the famous 2-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund where young Karius was kept busy and even forced into a penalty save from Ciro Immobile. That performance earned him a spot in the Talent Radar Team of the Week.
Loris Karius impressed us immensely in the latter half of last season, making regular Team of the Week appearances, and has continued that form into the start of this season, occupying first spot with very little competition having jumped one place since the previous issue. Karius has helped Mainz to an incredible start to the campaign having kept two cleansheets in the first five games with the side yet to lose and thus sitting pretty in 4th spot.
Mainz now have a home game against Hoffenheim and an away fixture to Monchengladbach before the next issue is released, two winnable games for Mainz and two games where he certainly can impress us once again, and cement his place at the top.
Losing his spot to Loris Karius since the last issue is Alphonse Areola who has been in first place thus far. Unfortunately, the man on loan at Bastian from PSG has been inconsistent with his performances. He received praise for his recent mid-week showing against Nantes though, keeping his second clean-sheet and leading his side to a 0-0 stalemate. It’s unlikely though that he could reclaim top spot, having held the position after starting earlier than most players in the list, and not showing enough to compete with them, thus far.
Close on the heels of Areola and likely to over-take him in the next issue is newly promoted Cologne’s German keeper, Timo Horn. The youngster hasn’t had a spectacular performance thus far and as a result has failed to make a single Talent Radar Team of the Week appearance. However, from the five men on this list, Horn has arguably been the most consistent. keeping an incredible 4 cleansheets in the opening 5 games having conceded just one solitary goal as Cologne are on a run of two wins, three draws and no losses so far this domestic campaign. That record could very well change as Cologne now host Bayern Munich in their next game.
Rounding off the list is a newcomer in Mattia Perin, who has had two incredible performances since the previous issue, one of which (vs Fiorentina) earned him a spot in the Talent Radar Team of the Week. Mouez Hassen is 5th, just about holding his own but not on much merit. The teenager hasn’t been able to put in solid performance consistently, since his good showing vs Lorient right at the start of the season that got him into the Team of the Week then. Maxime Dupe of Nantes is the man who has been removed since the previous issue, replaced by Mattia Perin.
| # | PLAYER | AGE | CLUB | NATIONALITY |
| 1 | Loris Karius | 21 | Mainz | Germany |
| 2 | Alphonse Areola | 21 | Bastia | France |
| 3 | Timo Horn | 21 | Cologne | Germany |
| 4 | Mattia Perin | 21 | Genoa | Italy |
| 5 | Mouez Hassen | 19 | Nice | France |
Written by Sami Faizullah. Chief Editor of this website.
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