Josh Doig and Aaron Hickey have been rated as two of the 200 most exciting young players in world football by the CIES Football Observatory.
The young Scottish pair have both shot to stardom since swapping the SPFL for Serie A with Hickey leaving Hearts for Bologna in 2020 before earning a £14m move to Premier League side Brentford less than two years later. Doig, meanwhile, looks to be on a similar trajectory and could bank Hibs significant cash if his performances for Hellas Verona continue with Juventus and Inter among the teams linked with a major move.
The CIES is a French sports research organisation who routinely publish detailed studies on football and their latest monthly report ranks 200 of the most promising young talents into the world. It's split into 20 categories of ten players each - ranging from goalkeeper and defensive centre-back right up to shot-oriented centre-forward.
Despite featuring almost exclusively at right-back for Brentford, Hickey ranks highly in the "two-way left-back" category - and is rated as the third most promising behind PSG's Nuno Mendes and Udinese's Destiny Ugodie. Doig, meanwhile, is ranked as the sixth most promising "attacking left-back" in the world.
The CIES study uses the metric of "experience capital," which they describe as "combining playing time, the competitive level of matches played and results." They claim it is a proven and effective method of identifying high-potential players and that certainly seems to bode well for two of Scottish football's brightest long-term prospects.
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