#7 Ruben Neves
By no means an unknown in the football community, Ruben Neves has been in the public eye for a couple of years now. Enrolled in FC Porto’s academy since the age of 8, Neves graduated to the first team as a 17-year-old thanks in part to an injury to teammate Mikel Agu, as he replaced him in the first team’s pre-season set up.
He holds a few records consisting the young age criteria for Porto. He became the youngest club goal scorer in the Primeira Liga, before becoming the Portugal’s youngest player ever to appear in the Champions League less than a week later.
In a year’s time, aged 18 years and 221 days he led the team as captain in a Champions League group stage match against Maccabi Tel Aviv becoming the youngest to captain a side in a Champions League game.
Such an impressive rise in modern football has never gone untracked by scouts of the biggest clubs in the world. And the midfielder has been constantly in the rumour mills, most recently being linked to Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea. The defensive midfielder has been quietly gaining traction in the eyes of scouts given his leadership abilities on the pitch.
The reason for his inclusion in this list because he has in this season somewhat lost his spot as a first team regular. Instead, he’s made just four starts in all competitions, two of which were in the domestic cup. This season has seen the spotlight turn to a few of his teammates – Danilo Pereira, Andre Silva, and Yacine Brahimi.
The central and defensive midfield role has been occupied by the aforementioned Pereira and Hector Herrera, reducing the playing time of Neves. And 2017 is upon him to reproduce the sort of performances that convinced Julen Lopetegui to retain him in the first team squad after his preseason and even give the captain’s armband. Neves has been in the limelight for a while now, and it’s the coming 12 months that will see Neves regain his spot in the first team.