Gianluca Busio, Gio Reyna and the rest of Next Generation 2019: how have they got on?

Gianluca Busio and Gio Reyna are both at top-flight clubs – Venezia and Borussia Dortmund – but the latter has been hampered by injury problems. Illustration: Guardian Design

Career paths are rarely straightforward, whether in football or any other area of life. Circumstances often change. Injuries and illnesses happen, there are often changes in leadership which have an impact on the individual while personal lives also play a part.

Career paths are therefore very difficult to predict. Looking down the list of our 2019 Next Generation, which we have now followed for five years, there were no guarantees any of the players would become household names. OK, Alex Holiga, who covers the Balkans for us, was confident that Josko Gvardiol would make it big – which he has – but apart from him, and perhaps Ansu Fati, Eduardo Camavinga and Jérémy Doku, there were no certainties.