Best FM24 wonderkids & young players to sign in Football Manager 2024

Adding some of the best wonderkids to your team in Football Manager 2024 is essential if you want to secure the future for your squad, but it's often a tricky process to gauge which stars will shine the most in the coming years; and when building for the future, you need to make sure these players fit in with your current tactics and vision.

While there are quite a few young players in the game that are guaranteed to be great, there are even more hidden gems to uncover, and realities where even the obvious picks don’t work out - so here are our top suggestions.

What are wonderkids in Football Manager?

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Wonderkids are typically players under the age of 21 that have a high Potential Ability (PA) value in the game, and are thus likely to become world-class players in the future.

Not every wonderkid with a high PA will become a top player, as there are many determining factors like their Current Ability (CA), stats like Determination, how you develop them at your club, and if they pick up any career-changing injuries.

Current and Potential Ability are measured from 1 to 200, with the latter being reserved for the best of the best. Any player with a PA over 160 is likely to be a leading player in a top 5 league if they achieve their potential, but exceeding 180 is likely where you will find the next selection of world-class talents.

There is also one caveat when it comes to wonderkids in Football Manager, as some less-established or younger players don’t have a specific PA between 1 and 200, but instead are within a group between -1 and -10. This means that a wonderkid’s potential can hypothetically shift 20 points, so there is a chance that some of these wonderkids might not be as good as, or even better than we have listed them below - no two FM saves will be the same. 

For help with finding wondered, if you want to find them organically, hiring a good Director of Football can really help. 

The best wonderkids for each position in FM24

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Here are our picks for the top wonderkids that you can buy in FM24, which we have limited to U21 players with high potential in-game. Similarly, while many of the picks here will be quite obvious to anyone who keeps up with world football, that doesn’t mean that these players aren’t still destined for greatness.

Goalkeepers

Centre-backs 

Right backs 

Left backs 

Defensive midfielders 

Central midfielders

Left wingers 

Strikers

Right wingers

I've certainly got my eyes on someone like Antonio Silva to shore up the back for many years to come, and while he will certainly be cheaper than established names like Pedri, Camavinga, and certainly Bellingham – he will still fetch a pretty price.

Most, if not all of the names listed above will be well worth their transfer price and more if they live up to their potential though, so it is up to you to decide whether the investment is indeed worth the outcome.

So, that wraps up all you need to know about the best wonderkids in FM24 so you can prepare for the future if you’re willing to invest in it.

We will be updating this guide with new names once we can properly dive into the details of players’ Potential Ability, so make sure to check back regularly as fresh players get added to the pool.

Check out our Football Manager homepage if you’re looking for more guides like this, including all of the best formations & tactics in Football Manager 2024 that you can use to succeed in the game.