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#3 Teun Koopmeiners
Age: 21
Club: AZ Alkmaar
Market Value: €7.50 million
First on our list is a relatively unknown name to many football fans, both in Europe and around the world. Teun Koopmeiners is a Dutch midfielder currently plying his trade for AZ Alkmaar in the Dutch Eredivisie.
Koopmeiners started his career at youth level at local side Vitesse '22 before joining the AZ academy aged 11. He progressed swiftly through the ranks of the club's age group squads, before representing their reserve side, Jong AZ, in the third tier of Dutch football, helping them gain promotion to the second division.
He made his senior club debut at the age of 19, as a substitute in a 4-0 loss to Feyenoord. Still only 21, he has already made 67 appearances for his boyhood club.
Koopmeiners is a player with the skill set of a midfielder, but who also has the game awareness and adaptability to fill in at centre back. Although he was used as a defensive midfielder earlier, he currently plays in a slightly more advanced role, with less defensive responsibility, a la Luka Modric at Tottenham Hotspur.
As we can see from the above radar comparison of Modric and Koopmeiners' numbers, the two players' profile is quite similar in terms of their number of shots, dribbles, fouls won and key passes per game, so logic dictates that Koopmeiners would more or less be at home in the Madrid midfield.
What stands out, however, is Koopmeiners' passing range, which gives Modric's some serious competition.
He completes 6.5 long balls per game, compared to Modric's 4.8, and averages 72.6 short passes to the Croatian's 47.
However, Koopmeiners' long ball completion rate is only 59.2%, which provides an idea of how many he actually attempts given the number he completes. His short passing game, however, is as good as, if not better, than Modric's, with a 92.6% accuracy (Modric completes 90%).
If Madrid were to take a gamble on Koopmeiners, it could well pay off, as his ability to win the ball back at a similar rate to Modric and his superior variety of passing could help them exploit the abilities of Rodrygo and Vinicius Jr. on the flanks for years to come.
