It’s that time of year again. The leaves are turning, the clocks go back, and a subsection of PC gamers while away the autumnal evenings looking at spreadsheets of promising teenaged attacking midfielders. Football Manager 2024 is here, and would you believe it; there are some wonderkids in the database again this year.
Wonderkids are young players with high potential ability ratings (a hidden stat in-game) and a tendency to reach that PA stat early in their career. Many of them are much cheaper at the start of your game than they will be after a few seasons when their strong performances drive their reputation stat (also hidden in-game), their transfer value, and their wage expectations upwards.
The idea is, you buy them before they blow up, and then either get ten great years of football out of them or sell them on for a profit—concepts that Todd Boehly would find terribly quaint, but that yield fantastic results in both FM and the real game.
How we chose our wonderkids
There are dozens of wonderkids in each position in the FM24, and if you want to see them all, we recommend visiting FM Scout’s excellent wonderkids guide. What you’ll find below is a more curated selection. All these players are currently earning under £5k/week, which is some indication that they haven’t been discovered and become global superstars yet.
Most of the players here are at clubs they could be tempted away from, particularly if you have deep pockets or a particularly prestigious badge. There are exceptions, like Barcelona’s Marc Bernal, who are already at the top tier of clubs, but even Bernal’s head can be turned at the start of the game and based on his current value to potential rating ratio, it’s worth spending big in 2023 to sell even bigger five years down the line.
With the rationale laid out then, let’s hunt for some wonderkids.
Goalkeepers
Here are the best wonderkid goalkeepers in FM24:
Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro
- Age: 19
- Club: AZ
- Nationality: Dutch
- Salary: 0.5K/week
Jack Thompson
- Age: 16
- Club: Derby
- Nationality: English
- Salary: 0.2K/week
Bartosz Zelasowski
- Age: 18
- Club: OGC Nice
- Nationality: Polish
- Salary: 0.1K/week
Central defenders
Here are the best wonderkid central defenders in FM24:
Chadi Riyad
- Age: 20
- Club: Real Hispalis
- Nationality: Moroccan
- Salary: 3K/week
Jorrel Hato
- Age: 17
- Club: Ajax
- Nationality: Dutch
- Salary: 3K/week
Martin Vitik
- Age: 20
- Club: Sparta Prague
- Nationality: Czech
- Salary: 3K/week
Full-backs (left)
Here are the best wonderkid left full-backs in FM24:
Matteo Ruggeri
- Age: 20
- Club: Atalanta
- Nationality: Italian
- Salary: 1K/week
Harvey Araujo
- Age: 18
- Club: Fulham
- Nationality: English
- Salary: 0.4K/week
Alex Valle
- Age: 19
- Club: Levante
- Nationality: Spanish
- Salary: 2K/week
Full-backs (right)
Here are the best wonderkid right full-backs in FM24:
Filippo Missori
- Age: 19
- Club: Sassuolo
- Nationality: Italian
- Salary: 0.9K/week
Michael Kayode
- Age: 19
- Club: Fiorentina
- Nationality: Italian
- Salary: 0.2K/week
Arnau Martinez
- Age: 20
- Club: Girona
- Nationality: Spanish
- Salary: 3K/week
Defensive midfielders
Here are the best wonderkid defensive midfielders in FM24:
Adam Wharton
- Age: 19
- Club: Blackburn
- Nationality: English
- Salary: 5K/week
Giacomo Faticanti
- Age: 18
- Club: Salento
- Nationality: Italian
- Salary: 2K/week
Marc Bernal
- Age: 16
- Club: Barcelona
- Nationality: Spanish
- Salary: 0.7K/week
Central midfielders
Here are the best wonderkid central midfielders in FM24:
Archie Gray
- Age: 17
- Club: Leeds
- Nationality: English
- Salary: 1K/week
Assan Ouedraogo
- Age: 17
- Club: Leeds
- Nationality: English
- Salary: 1K/week
Joao Veloso
- Age: 18
- Club: Benfica
- Nationality: Portuguese
- Salary: 3K/week
Left wingers
Here are the best wonderkid left wingers in FM24:
Mikey Moore
- Age: 15
- Club: Tottenham
- Nationality: English
- Salary: 0.1K/week
Joao Rego
- Age: 18
- Club: Benfica
- Nationality: Portuguese
- Salary: 3K/week
Kendry Paez
- Age: 16
- Club: Independiente del Valle
- Nationality: Ecuadorian
- Salary: 0.1K/week
Right wingers
Here are the best wonderkid right wingers in FM24:
Lamine Yamal
- Age: 15
- Club: Barcelona
- Nationality: Spanish
- Salary: 0.1K/week
Shea Lacey
- Age: 16
- Club: Man Utd
- Nationality: English
- Salary: 0.1K/week
Ben Doak
- Age: 17
- Club: Liverpool
- Nationality: Scottish
- Salary: 3K/week
Central attacking midfielders
Here are the best wonderkid central attacking midfielders in FM24:
Estevao
- Age: 16
- Club: SEP
- Nationality: Brazilian
- Salary: 0.2K/week
Jano Monserrate
- Age: 17
- Club: Real Zaragoza B
- Nationality: Spanish
- Salary: 0.3K/week
Junior Kroupi
- Age: 17
- Club: FC Lorient
- Nationality: French
- Salary: 3K/week
Strikers
Here are the best wonderkid left strikers in FM24:
Endrick
- Age: 16
- Club: SEP
- Nationality: Brazilian
- Salary: 3K/week
Gabriel Silva
- Age: 16
- Club: Sporting CP
- Nationality: Portuguese
- Salary: 0.1K/week
Enzo Sternal
- Age: 16
- Club: OM
- Nationality: French
- Salary: 0.6K/week
