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15th Oct 2016

Lionel Messi names the most talented youngsters in football and you’ve heard of maybe two

Celtic's on-loan star makes the cut

Darragh Murphy

It struck us that Marcus Rashford was not included on Lionel Messi’s list of talented youngsters.

We thought ‘What the hell does a lad have to do to get a bit of recognition?’

Then we realised that it was an adidas advertising campaign and Rashford, a Nike athlete, was never going to be in the running.

Messi gave his list of most up-and-coming youngsters currently playing with the common denominator that adidas sponsored every one.

But while Rashford was ignored due to his sponsorship allegiances, one prospect who very much fit the bill was Patrick Roberts, the Manchester City winger who is on loan at Celtic.

Roberts, who has actually been compared to Messi in the past, is accompanied by Thai youngster Chanathip Songkrasin and Alex Muyl of the New York Red Bulls.

Here is the list in full:

– Chanathip Songkrasin (Muangthong United)
– Kasper Dolberg (Ajax)
– Gabriel Boschilia (AS Monaco)
– Nadya Karpova (Chertanovo)
– Alex Muyl (New York Red Bulls)
– Nathan Allan (Vitesse)
– Davide Calabria (Milan)
– Jean-Kevin Augustin (PSG)
– Patrick Roberts (Celtic)

Who else is impressed by the *fact* that Messi is such an avid follower of Chertanovo?

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