If I am not blogging about politics, music, films or art, it is football. So here we go. The sports pages of the London Times just published a list of the world’s top 50 rising stars. The list is biased (as usual) to players playing in the top UK leagues and it also famously included a hoax player, but it is still worth checking out.
The top three prospects are (in that order): Hernanes (Sao Paulo), Karim Benzema (Lyon), David Silva (Valencia), Radamel Falcao Garcia (River Plate) and Douglas Costa (Gremio).
Five players with African links also make the list: Steve Mandanda (13, Marseilles, born in Kinshasa; that’s him above), Mario Balotelli (19, Inter Milan, parents from Ghana), Daniel Opara (41, Real Madrid and Ghana), Victor Moses (42, Crystal Palace, plays for England youth teams, but born in Nigeria) and Rabiu Ibrahim (44, Sporting Lisbon and Nigeria, “the next Jay-Jay Okocha”).
Many of these players could be in action at next year’s World Cup
