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Even though it is already 2018, the dawn of the millennium seems like just a few days before. So it's quite unusual to see footballers with a birth age starting with a two. But the world is moving forward as fast as never before. Just ten years back first people born in 2000 started going to school but now they are starting their adult lives.
It has been fun to look at their progress in football. Two years ago Moise Kean became the first player born in 2000 to make his debut in one of Europe's top four leagues. But now players like Ryan Sessegnon and Jadon Sancho are regulars in Premier League and Bundesliga.
It's crazy to see how market prices have increased, just before a year the most valuable player born in 2000 was valued at £4.5m. Now the price has risen over £30m.
Let's have a look at the most valuable footballers born in the last year of the 20th century.
#5 Moise Kean (Juventus / Italy) - £10.80m
In the November 2016, the young Italian striker Moise Kean became the first player born in 2000 to play in one of the top four leagues. 16 years old at the time, the youngster came on at the 84th minute for Juventus against Pescara. Just three days later Kean made his debut in Champions League against Sevilla, once again coming on at the 84th minute.
The young prospect played two more games that season and even scored the winning goal of the final league match against Bologna. The following season Kean went on a loan to Hellas Verona, playing 19 games and scoring four goals in the Seria A.
At the start of the summer, there was speculation that Juventus wasn't entirely happy with Kean's development and looked to sell him. But, as the transfer period in Italy is over and it is going to end in all the other top leagues, it seems that the young striker will stay with the Italian champions. He has a difficult season ahead of him and it won't be easy even to get on the bench. But Kean can learn a lot from one of the newest additions to the team, Cristiano Ronaldo.
#4 Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund / England) - £18m
In March 2015 Jadon Sancho left Watford's academy and moved to Manchester City for £66k at the age of only 14. After a fantastic European Championship U-17 in May 2017, City's chairman said that Sancho will be promoted to the senior side.
The young winger couldn't come to an agreement on a new contract so he was released from Manchester City's pre-season tour squad. After a summer filled with transfer speculations, Sancho surprisingly moved on the deadline day to Borussia Dortmund. Manchester City retained a chance on him, including a buy-back to the transfer.
The 2017/18 season for Sancho was a difficult one as he missed a large number of games because of injuries. The Englishman still proved his worth to Borussia by playing from whistle to whistle in all of the last four league games. He had a spectacular performance against Bayern Leverkusen, scoring once and assisting twice.
Sancho is expected to be a first-team player for Borussia this season. The Wonderkid is also very likely to get his first call-up to the National team this September.
#3 Paulinho (Bayer Leverkusen / Brazil) - £22.50m
After Paulinho got promoted to Vasco da Gama first-team in June 2017, he made an immediate impact. The young prodigy became the club's youngest player when he made his debut two days before his 17th birthday. Paulinho needed only 11 more days to score a brace and break another age-related record, becoming the youngest player to score in Brazilian Serie A.
He helped the newly promoted side to qualify for South America's most prestigious tournament Copa Libertadores. Paulinho went on to score twice in that competition. Needless to say that he's the first Cope Libertadores goalscorer born in 2000.
European clubs weren't sleeping and in this summer, on Paulinho's 18th birthday, Bayer Leverkusen bought the Brazilian winger for a bit more than £16m. That made Paulinho the third most expensive player born in 2000 or after.
An interesting fact from Paulinho is that before the season he denied that Bayern has already basically won the title, telling SportBild: "Everyone has the same chance of winning the title at the start of the season. Of course, I want to be a champion with Bayer."
The winger has also had an amazing career with Brazil's national U-17 team. Paulinho helped the side to get a bronze in 2017 World Cup U-17. He was tied for the team's best goalscorer with three goals, including winning strikes against Spain and Germany.
#2 Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid / Brazil) - £31.50m
Vinicius Junior was only 10 years old when he signed a youth contract with Flamengo. The club already then knew that Junior is something special.
The young winger was leading the Brazilian youth teams (U-15 and U-17) while being a year younger than everyone else. Junior's serious burst to stardom came in 2016 Sao Paulo Youth Cup, the largest U-20 tournament in Brazil. He was one of the best players in the competition even though he was much younger than most footballers there.
After Junior turned 16 in July 2016, Flamengo signed him professionally and included a massive £27m release clause. In May 2017 the young winger made his debut for the club. Junior attracted Europe's biggest clubs and Flamengo immediately signed a new contract with him, increasing the release clause to £40m.
Real Madrid was down for it and bought Junior. After two great seasons with Flamengo, making almost 70 appearances and scoring 14 goals, the Wonderkid joined Spanish giants in July 2018, after turning 18.
As Real Madrid's head coach Julen Lopetegui has said, Junior will stay in Madrid but is going to play mostly with the B team.
#
1 Ryan Sessegnon (Fulham / England) - £31.50m
Ryan Sessegnon is undoubtedly the most proven in professional football on this list. The English left-sided defender had a rapid rise to fame in 2016/17 season, when at the age of just 16 he became a regular for the Championship side Fulham.
He played 25 games in the English second tier, getting included in the team of the season. In the summer of 2017, there was a reported interest from Premier League's and Bundesliga's biggest clubs but Sessegnon didn't want to leave and signed a new contract with Fulham.
He said: "Last season I got a lot of opportunities so I want to continue that. When you are young you just want to play as many games as you can."
The following season Sessegnon started to play more in attack and was involved in 24 goals, helping Fulham earn a promotion to Premier League trough play-off. He was named the EFL best player of the Championship season.
The start of 2018/19 season has been difficult for Sessegnon and Fulham as a whole, as they have suffered two heavy losses [written before Fulham's game against Brunley]. The 18-year-old has made his mark as he got an assist in his second Premier League game against Tottenham Hotspur.
