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We are coming off the back of a brilliant summer of football. The World Cup in Russia was one of the best we have seen for an awfully long time, with a month of thrills and spills ending with France coming away with their second world title thanks to a 4-2 victory over Croatia in the final.
But with the World Cup over, all eyes turn to club football, where we look set for another enthralling nine months. In the majority of European leagues, there wasn’t much of a title race last season, and a number of teams ran away with the crown. But things look like they could be different this season.
In England, Manchester City put together a record run as they romped to the title, in the progress becoming the first team to accumulate 100 points in the Premier League. This summer, Liverpool have strengthened, and Arsenal and Chelsea have both changed managers in an attempt to close the gap.
Barcelona came within two games of becoming the first team to go through a whole La Liga season unbeaten, before a defeat to Levante. Real Madrid have turned to Julen Lopetegui to take over this year, after Zinedine Zidane’s shock resignation.
The closest title race probably came in Italy, where Napoli pushed Juventus all the way, but it was the Old Lady who claimed their seventh consecutive league title. It was a different story in France, as big-spending PSG eased to the title ahead of Monaco.
There were some standout individual performances in European football, particularly from the likes of Mo Salah and Kylian Mbappe, who made a name for themselves last season. Here are five men who could do the same again this year.
#1 Leon Goretzka (Bayern Munich)
Goretzka has begun to come to the fore in recent years, and now he has made the move to Bayern Munich, he can really begin to establish himself in European football. He first made an impact in the Bundesliga with Schalke, with whom he spent an impressive five seasons. He made 116 league appearances for Schalke, during which he scored 14 goals. He was also a part of Germany’s disastrous World Cup campaign, a year after playing a key role in helping them win the Confederations Cup.
He has joined Bayern Munich on a free transfer this summer, a move which could help take his career to the next level. He is one of the brightest talents that Germany have produced in recent years, and his passing ability as well as his capability of getting forward to score goals, have seen him compared with Lothar Matthaus and Michael Ballack. At Bayern, Goretzka will have the chance to play regularly in the Champions League, and with better players, and that can surely only improve him.
#2 Federico Chiesa (Fiorentina)
It’s fair to say that it hasn’t been a successful few years for Italian football. There was a bit of a challenge from Napoli last season, but Juventus have now dominated the league for seven years. On the international stage, they suffered the embarrassment of failing to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 60 years. There are some bright young talents coming through to help restore them to former glories, and Chiesa is probably the brightest of the lot.
The 20-year-old is set to begin his third senior season with Fiorentina, unless the rumours of a £62 million move away from Italy prove to be true. He is the sort of winger who excites fans, and defenders don’t wish to come up against. He is fast, direct, tricky, and capable of playing on both the right and left flanks. Fiorentina missed out on qualification for the Europa League last season, so his only exposure will be in Italy, but he is a quality player, and could really make a name for himself over the next 12 months.
#3 Breel Embolo (Schalke)
It is easy to forget that Embolo is still only 21. He has been playing regular first-team football for four years, and has been a key player for the Swiss national team over much of the same period. He initially made his name with his first club, Basel, with whom he was a part of some impressive Champions League displays, including in the 2014/15 season, where they progressed from a group including Real Madrid and Liverpool.
He left Switzerland in 2016, and moved to Schalke, where his career has been halted slightly by injuries. He has appeared just 28 times in the Bundesliga over the past two years, and scored just five goals. He will go into this season fully fit, meaning he can finally begin to make his mark in the Bundesliga. He is a strong, powerful striker, with the pace to cause problems for defenders. He will hope to add more goals to his game, and if he can do so, he will be a top striker.
#4 Dayot Upamecano (RP Leipzig)
While we said earlier that it is a difficult time for Italian football, it is the complete opposite for French football. Their young squad have just won the country’s second World Cup title in Russia, and there are still a host of excellent young players coming through, and one of those is defender Upamecano. He may not be the best known of France’s young players, but he certainly is one of the most talented.
He spent two seasons with Red Bull Salzburg, before moving to their partner club, RB Leipzig, in 2016 for a fee of around £8 million. He has had a decent couple of seasons in the Bundesliga, and began to establish himself in the side during the second half of last season. He made 37 appearances in all competitions, helping Leipzig qualify for the Europa League last season. He will hope to be first choice at the club next season, allowing him the chance to make a name for himself in Germany.
#5 Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund)
It was a bit of a surprise when Sancho chose to leave Manchester City last summer to join German giants Borussia Dortmund for a fee of around £8 million. It is rare that we see English players move abroad, something shown at this summer’s World Cup, where every player in the English squad plied their trade in England.
Sancho was given the number seven shirt previously worn by Ousmane Dembele, and in October, became the first Englishman to appear in the Bundesliga. He struggled to really hold down a place in the team for much of the season but started to appear more and more as the season drew to a close. He will look to build on this when the season gets underway, and really show that the decision to move to Germany was the right one.
