With college football's top prospects set to be snapped up by teams over the next three days, Goal ponders how such a process would work in soccer…
With the Covid-19 pandemic having brought a halt to almost all sport around the world, fans are begging for any kind of live event to get their teeth into while spending almost all their time at home.
The 2020 NFL Draft promises, then, to garner even more interest this week as the top college American football prospects are signed by the top professional league's 32 teams from Thursday through to Saturday.
However, what if soccer introduced a similar process for top clubs to select the best young players each year? How would it look, and could it give some of Europe's fallen giants the opportunity to rise again?
Goal has chosen to conduct such an experiment, using the recently revealed NxGn list of the 50 best teenage male footballers on the planet as the '2020 Draft Class', meaning the likes of Mason Greenwood, Gabriel Martinelli, Ansu Fati and winner Rodrygo are all up for grabs.
So how does our draft work? Here are the rules:
– Goal has selected 15 of Europe's biggest clubs to take part in the draft, with those selected regarded as the frontrunners to form a 'European Super League' should that ever come to pass.
– Clubs will select in reverse order of strength, based on their ELO rating, which calculates a team's ranking using historic results (full details here). The draft will consist of two rounds, meaning 30 players will be drafted.
– Unlike in the NFL and other North American sports drafts, there will be no trades made at any point.
– The draft is theoretically taking place ahead of the 2020-21 season. As such, clubs should consider all out-of-contract players as having left to become free agents, while players whose loan deals expire at the end of the current campaign have returned to their parent clubs.
– Players within the draft should also be considered as being unattached rather than part of squads.
So with that all hopefully explained, clubs must now consider where the major gaps are in their squad and which players can fill them. Let the 2020 Goal Draft begin!
Getty1LIVERPOOL select CURTIS JONES
With the final pick of the second round, Liverpool are left with a choice: take the best player left on the board in Lee Kang-in or opt for local knowledge in the same position and take Curtis Jones?
They choose the latter, knowing that the Anfield faithful love watching fellow Scousers thrive for the Reds.
AdvertisementGetty Images2BAYERN MUNICH select JOAO PEDRO
The strong class of strikers in 2020 is really baring its teeth in the second round as yet another team opt to add goals to their squad.
This time it's Bayern, and with Zirkzee lost to the draft, they bring in the next-best player in his position, Joao Pedro, to serve as Robert Lewandowski's understudy.
Getty3MANCHESTER CITY select RAYAN CHERKI
Having been left disappointed in the first round, City can barely believe their luck that they have the chance to bring in Rayan Cherki with the 28th overall pick.
The needs of other teams have left Pep Guardiola's side with a free path to the French playmaker, and though he does not necessarily fill any kind of void in their squad, the 16-year-old can learn under the Catalan before eventually making his mark on the first team.
Getty4BARCELONA select JOSHUA ZIRKZEE
Not a difficult one this for Barcelona, who desperately need someone to provide able back-up for an ageing Luis Suarez.
As the top striker left on the board, Joshua Zirkzee is their man, with the Dutch star having already shown he can handle the pressure of first-team football.