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From Gosford to Ghana and beyond: The breakout stars of the 2022 FIFA World Cup

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17th November, 2022
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It used to be one of the magical things about the World Cup. The shock of the new, the chance to see a player that you’d never heard of turn up and do something amazing on the world stage. Even better: the chance to see someone you’d found in the depths of Championship Manager turn up and actually be good in real life.

Alas, mass media – and, probably, football video games – has killed it. There’s nobody who has ever kicked a football well in the presence of a camera that we don’t already know everything about. People in Manchester and Madrid know who the Central Coast Mariners’ hottest new talent is before the news has reached Port Macquarie.

That said, there’s still plenty of new stars for casual fans to latch hold of. Our list has kids from Japan, but fresh out of the famed Barcelona youth system, a Ghanaian wonderkid on the cusp of stardom and two of the brightest talents from the Salzburg and Dortmund production lines. Oh, and of course, it’s got the kid from the Cenny Coast too.

Youssoufa Moukoko (Germany)

It’s hard to pick a breakout star from one of the big nations, given that everyone now knows everything about all their players. Youssoufa Moukoko is hardly new – though he turned 18 literally yesterday – and has been kicking around the Bundesliga, and on YouTube highlights videos, for a while now.

But he’s still a teenager, still very much in the breakout period, and looks just about ready to be given proper minutes in the Nationalmannschaft. Moukoko looked a model of composure in a frantic Dortmund side in the recent late draw with Bayern, scoring the first in a two-goal comeback, fulfilling a destiny that’s been predicted by many for years.

He replaced Erling Haaland for his debut, a day after turning 16, and became the youngest scorer in the history of the German top flight within a month of that. He’s on six goals in 14 games this year – and, it bears repeating, just turned 18 the week before the World Cup starts.

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Takefusa Kubo (Japan)

Japanese football is in a really good place at the moment. They walked all over Australia to qualify and, despite being in a group with Spain and Germany, will fancy their chances of causing a shock and reaching the latter stages.

Aussie football fans will likely be aware of Ange Postecoglou’s Japanese contingent at Celtic – for the record, your author watches more of that team than is healthy – and it speaks to the strength of the Samurai Blue that Reo Hatate and Kyogo Furuhashi, the two undoubted stars of that side, don’t even make the World Cup squad.

Playing the role that Hatate might have filled is Takefusa Kubo, the next cab off the tricky-Japanese-playmaker conveyor belt that gave you Shinji Ono, Keisuke Honda, Shinji Kagawa, Hidetoshi Nakata and (club loyalties insist that I ask you to bow at this stage) Shunsuke Nakamura.

Kubo is 21, though he looks about 12, and was much feted when he joined Barcelona at the age of just ten back in 2011, the first Japanese to do so. Often, that kind of talent fizzles out, but no such thing here.

He starred at La Masia before a FIFA tribunal decided that poaching kids out of primary school wasn’t the best ethical look and sent Kubo home. Back in Japan, he made a pro debut at 15 and then went back to Spain, where he signed with Real Madrid.

He never made the first team but after strong loan spells at Mallorca and Getafe, he joined Real Sociedad on a permanent basis and now is one of the best young stars in La Liga. He’s already a superb playmaker, and if he can add one or two more goals, he’ll be primed to lead the next generation of stars.

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Noah Okafor (Switzerland)

The talent production line in Salzburg is strong: they gave you Erling Haaland, Dayot Upamecano, Naby Keita, Domenik Szoboszlai and, probably the first of the lot, Sadio Mane.

Noah Okafor is next, and this World Cup might be his chance to send his future sale price yet higher. The young Swiss has been linked with Liverpool, AC Milan and West Ham already on the back of Austrian Bundesliga performances that see him scoring at a one-in-two rate, a level sustained in this year’s Champions league group stages.

Historically, Switzerland have had great creative players – Xherdan Shaqiri most notably, but Hakan Yakin before that – and godawful central strikers, with only Alex Frei any good for about 20 years.

Now, that might be about to change, with Okafor able to do all the things you might want from a modern forward: he’s fast, loves to cut in off the left wing and, thanks to an upbringing in the RB system, is always willing to press from the front.

Issahaku Abdul Fatawu(Ghana)

Ghana have had a strange old history at the World Cup: they never qualified for years, standing still as their nearest and dearest, Nigeria, captured hearts in 1994, won the Olympics in 1996 and then stole a few more in 1998 and 2002. Jay Jay Okocha, I still love you.

The Black Stars have probably achieved more in their three World Cups than Nigeria have in six, reaching the R16 once and the quarters once, where they were cruelly knocked out by the hand of Luis Suarez in 2010.

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They’ve never really had a transcendent star, however, like my beloved Jay Jay or his contemporary, Nwankwo Kanu.

The closest Ghana have is Abedi Pele, who played prior to the World Cup-qualifying era, Asamoah Gyan, who never lived up to the same heights at club level that he produced in tournaments and Michael Essien, who flickered more than he lasted at the highest level.

Now, that might be about to change: Issahaku Abdul Fatawu is here and he might be the best yet. Issahaku is just 18, but already has his move to Europe with Sporting Lisbon and every major club in the Premier League circling around him.

He was named in The Guardian‘s annual NextGen list while still playing in Ghana and picked up player of the tournament at the under-21 Africa Cup of Nations, despite being several years younger than everyone else.

Issahaku featured twice in this year’s Champions League and has been a regular for national team selection, going to the senion AFCON in January and now booking a ticket to Qatar. He’ll either be used as a right winger – as is usually the case at club level – or entrusted in central midfield, where many think he will eventually end up.

Garang Kuol (Aus)

Australia’s rising star might not yet have started a senior men’s game, but that’s exactly what we’re after in this list.

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Kuol, from South Sudan via the Central Coast, is the most exciting Aussie prospect in years and you only need to watch about five minutes of him to work out why. He’s already signed to the Premier League from January, with Newcastle United buying him off the Mariners, and that deal could look cheap by the time it goes through.

The winger/forward signed off in style with two goals from the bench in the A-League and looks primed to play a role in Graham Arnold’s team, particularly late in games where his pace, trickery and exuberance – that comes with being 18 – should add inspiration to a Socceroos lineup that often lacks it.

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