The NXGN Awards are back for another year, but in 2023, we're doing things a little differently!
In previous years, GOAL has ranked the world's top teenage talents in women's football, with the likes of Lena Oberdorf, Melchie Dumornay and Hanna Bennison finishing as the eventual winners.
This year, though, instead of there being a sole victor, we've selected an elite group that we believe are the very top of the class: The inaugural NXGN Nine.
So, having named 25 finalists for the women's NXGN Nine, check out our selections for the top teenage talents in the world:
GOALAline Gomes (Ferroviaria)
When Pia Sundhage, the head coach of Brazil’s senior national team, was interviewed by FIFA last year, she was asked which members of the Selecao’s team had impressed her most at the U20 World Cup. “The youngest one, actually,” she replied.
Sundhage was referring to Aline, the only player born in 2005 in Brazil’s squad for the tournament in Costa Rica.
A forward who attacks brilliantly from out wide, last year was a big one for Aline. She caught the eye at the U17 and U20 World Cups, nailed down a regular role as a starter with Ferroviaria in Brazil's top flight, and was selected as the league’s 'Revelation of the Season'.
“The way that Aline has taken off – the way she takes players on, uses space, is a threat on the flanks – has been really impressive,” Sundhage noted. When asked if she would consider taking her to the senior World Cup in 2023, the coach talked about being careful with young players before adding: "But if she's performing, let her play."
Aline is certainly not a front-runner for a place on the plane to Australia and New Zealand, but she will get a chance to impress having been named in Brazil's squad to take on European champions England in April's Finalissima.
Whether she makes it to the World Cup or not, big things can be expected from one of the most talented teenagers in Brazil right now. With her 18th birthday coming in July, it would be a shock should she stay in her homeland beyond the New Year.
AdvertisementGOALLinda Caicedo (Real Madrid)
Barcelona, Chelsea, Lyon – Caicedo was linked with the biggest clubs in the women’s game as she approached her 18th birthday. However, it was Real Madrid who secured the signature of one of the world’s most exciting young talents in February of this year.
Caicedo first came to the fore when she debuted for America de Cali at the age of 14. Her first season in senior football saw her not only finish top of the goal-scoring standings in Colombia’s top flight, but also fire the club to its first-ever Championship title.
The young forward, who also debuted for the senior national team at 14, has gone from strength to strength ever since that breakthrough year. After a controversial switch to rivals Deportivo Cali, Caicedo would win another league title and finish as joint-top scorer in the Copa Libertadores.
With electric pace and top quality finishing, another incredibly impressive trait of the teenager’s is the way she has handled the hype around her. Watching her play, she does not seem weighed down by it at all, still playing with the wonderful freedom that characterises her game.
She’s resilient, too. In 2022, Caicedo played at Copa America for Colombia, and was named Player of the Tournament and Player of the Match in the final. That was July. In August, she played for the U20s at the World Cup, scoring twice as they made the quarter-finals. Then, in October, she helped the U17s reach the final of their World Cup, winning the Silver Ball and Bronze Boot.
Such a demanding schedule is certainly not sustainable if Colombia wants Caicedo to blossom into the top talent she could be, with her having the potential to be a talismanic figure for her national team for years to come, as well as her club.
GOALAoba Fujino (Tokyo Verdy Beleza)
Named one of the most outstanding players in the 2021-22 WE League season, Fujino is the latest top talent to breakthrough in Japan – a country which boasts a really exciting next generation.
The young forward was part of a brilliant U16 team that won the AFC Championship in 2019, and her and many of her team-mates from that tournament were excellent again in 2022 when Japan reached the final of the U20 World Cup.
Fujino’s wonderful technical skill, ability to change pace to glide past a defender and awareness of how to find pockets of space where she can hurt an opponent were evident throughout her nation’s run.
Those traits and her high level also earned the teenager her first call-up to the senior national team in the months that followed, as Fujino debuted for the Nadeshiko in October 2022.
She’s settled very well onto that big stage and, at club level, continues to be a regular starter, and scorer, since breaking into Tokyo Verdy Beleza’s first-choice line up, which is no mean feat given the amount of top young talent the club has coming through.
The biggest stage yet looks like it could be in Fujino’s very near future, too, as she is beginning to nail down a role in Japan’s starting XI at a perfect time – right ahead of this summer’s World Cup.
GOALWieke Kaptein (Twente)
In May 2022, Kaptein was facing a dilemma. She could go to the U17 Euros with the Netherlands or she could stay at home and help Twente lift a league title.
Only 16 years old at the time, the midfielder described it as a “luxury problem”. In the end, her club made the decision that she would stick around, highlighting just how important she has become for the team, at such a young age.
Kaptein ended the season having played in 20 of the club’s 24 league games as they were crowned Dutch champions, starting 16 of them. She was also named the Eredivisie's Talent of the Year. "[It's] really not normal," the teenager told . "What I'm going through now, at this age, is so, so, so cool."
Only 15 years old when she signed her first professional contract, and the same age when she debuted in the Champions League, as time has passed Kaptein has developed, looked more assured and only seen the excitement around what she is capable of grow.
The young midfielder has great positional awareness, is able to balance the desire to get forward with the need to hold back, has brilliant variety in her passing and, when she gets the chance, a fierce shot.
Kaptein also has a wise head on her shoulders. She appears to understand what she needs right now in her career and when to take the next step. After all, she won’t be in her homeland forever. This is a player who is destined to become a lynchpin of one of Europe’s biggest and best clubs.