Winter break. Good time to check how did our Young Talent Challenge do since the last update. As always, here is the list of the 23 most talented players that are yet to turn 20 plus our earlier picks even if they are no longer among the 25 most talented. Players listed with a value of 2,000,000 € or below at Transfermarkt.de are anonymized and numbered. The numbers are consistent with earlier posts. When talents become known, we will uncover them.
Julian Brandt still leads, but to remarkable things happend. First, he didn't manage to further improve his peak. In fact, it dropped by three points. Secondly, another player of similar talent appeared on the screen. As his value is listed well below 2,000,000€, he remains anonymous and we take him into our virtual portfolio of January 2016 as "Anonymous Talent 28".
Of the old selected players, most still have a very good peak estimate. Just "Anonymous Talent 21" dropped to 113 and probably will not bring a strong return. Most others developed very well. Here is the overview of our investments.
The investments done in April 2015 will be hold for one year soon. 63% of them raised in value while only 25% dropped. We made on the overall investment of 6.7M€ a profit of nearly 3M€ or more than 40%. But it is dwarfed by the July investments that lead to nearly the same profit despite of an investment of only 2.4M€. In total a return on investment of 112% in just half a year. So far this portfolio is still to see a player to actually drop in value. Less time, but even more return was the September 2015 portfolio. 50% of the players increased in value in the just four months since the summer transfer window closed. This portfolio also more than doubled the value since then.
This month we again have some drop out because they turned 20.
All of the new drop-outs (Talent 7, 10 and 14) are still considered promising talents. We will change the rules and keep them in the portfolio.
| Player | Transfermarkt | First Listed | Transfermarkt @ first listed | Goalimpact | PeakGI | Player Age |
| Julian Brandt, Bayer Leverkusen | 10.000.000 € | Apr 15 | 5.000.000 € | 140 | 174 | 20 |
| Anonymous Talent 28 | 600.000 € | Jan 16 | 600.000 € | 85 | 165 | 17 |
| Anonymous Talent 20 | 0 € | Jul 15 | 0 € | 85 | 158 | 18 |
| Anonymous Talent 29 | 250.000 € | Jan 16 | 250.000 € | 73 | 156 | 17 |
| Youri Tielemans, RSC Anderlecht | 12.000.000 € | Apr 15 | 12.000.000 € | 102 | 155 | 19 |
| Anonymous Talent 30 | 1.750.000 € | Jan 16 | 1.750.000 € | 89 | 155 | 18 |
| Rubén Neves, FC Porto | 6.000.000 € | Apr 15 | 5.000.000 € | 103 | 154 | 19 |
| Anonymous Talent 31 | 0 € | Jan 16 | 0 € | 81 | 153 | 18 |
| Anonymous Talent 19 | 1.200.000 € | Jul 15 | 500.000 € | 96 | 153 | 19 |
| Ante Ćorić, Dinamo Zagreb | 5.000.000 € | Jul 15 | 2.500.000 € | 99 | 151 | 19 |
| Anonymous Talent 32 | 0 € | Jan 16 | 0 € | 73 | 151 | 17 |
| Anonymous Talent 33 | 0 € | Jan 16 | 0 € | 90 | 150 | 18 |
| Breel-Donald Embolo, FC Basel | 16.000.000 € | Apr 15 | 8.000.000 € | 101 | 150 | 19 |
| Anonymous Talent 34 | 900.000 € | Jan 16 | 900.000 € | 90 | 150 | 18 |
| Anonymous Talent 9 | 1.500.000 € | Apr 15 | 750.000 € | 117 | 150 | 20 |
| Anonymous Talent 24 | 0 € | Sep 15 | 0 € | 76 | 150 | 18 |
| Martin Ødegaard, Real Madrid Castilla | 4.000.000 € | Jan 16 | 4.000.000 € | 66 | 149 | 17 |
| Anonymous Talent 4 | 700.000 € | Apr 15 | 500.000 € | 94 | 149 | 19 |
| Anonymous Talent 36 | 0 € | Jan 16 | 0 € | 93 | 148 | 19 |
| Andrija Živković, Partizan | 7.000.000 € | Apr 15 | 3.000.000 € | 111 | 148 | 20 |
| Anonymous Talent 37 | 0 € | Jan 16 | 0 € | 84 | 148 | 18 |
| Anonymous Talent 38 | 0 € | Jan 16 | 0 € | 74 | 147 | 18 |
| Anonymous Talent 2 | 1.500.000 € | Apr 15 | 1.000.000 € | 97 | 147 | 19 |
| Anonymous Talent 39 | 0 € | Jan 16 | 0 € | 78 | 147 | 18 |
| Anonymous Talent 27 | 1.500.000 € | Sep 15 | 500.000 € | 105 | 146 | 19 |
| Anonymous Talent 3 | 300.000 € | Apr 15 | 1.000.000 € | 97 | 145 | 19 |
| Anonymous Talent 26 | 1.300.000 € | Sep 15 | 750.000 € | 85 | 143 | 18 |
| Anonymous Talent 8 | 1.500.000 € | Apr 15 | 500.000 € | 99 | 141 | 19 |
| Anonymous Talent 18 | 50.000 € | Jul 15 | 0 € | 104 | 141 | 20 |
| Anonymous Talent 12 | 400.000 € | Apr 15 | 125.000 € | 99 | 141 | 19 |
| Anonymous Talent 22 | 2.000.000 € | Jul 15 | 1.000.000 € | 93 | 140 | 19 |
| Anonymous Talent 5 | 300.000 € | Apr 15 | 350.000 € | 103 | 139 | 20 |
| Richairo Živković, Willem II | 2.500.000 € | Apr 15 | 4.000.000 € | 98 | 139 | 19 |
| Anonymous Talent 1 | 500.000 € | Apr 15 | 300.000 € | 91 | 138 | 19 |
| Valentino Lazaro | 2.000.000 € | Jul 15 | 2.500.000 € | 106 | 138 | 20 |
| Anonymous Talent 15 | 1.500.000 € | Apr 15 | 1.000.000 € | 89 | 138 | 19 |
| Anonymous Talent 23 | 1.500.000 € | Jul 15 | 750.000 € | 99 | 137 | 19 |
| Anonymous Talent 17 | 450.000 € | Jul 15 | 200.000 € | 87 | 137 | 19 |
| Anonymous Talent 16 | 0 € | Apr 15 | 0 € | 94 | 136 | 19 |
| Danilo, Valencia CF | 7.000.000 € | Sep 15 | 7.000.000 € | 105 | 136 | 20 |
| Anonymous Talent 11 | 75.000 € | Apr 15 | 50.000 € | 83 | 135 | 19 |
| Teddy Bishop, Ipswich Town | 2.500.000 € | Apr 15 | 2.500.000 € | 97 | 135 | 20 |
| Anonymous Talent 13 | 250.000 € | Apr 15 | 125.000 € | 101 | 134 | 20 |
| Anonymous Talent 25 | 0 € | Sep 15 | 0 € | 66 | 133 | 18 |
| Anonymous Talent 21 | 0 € | Jul 15 | 0 € | 45 | 113 | 18 |
Julian Brandt still leads, but to remarkable things happend. First, he didn't manage to further improve his peak. In fact, it dropped by three points. Secondly, another player of similar talent appeared on the screen. As his value is listed well below 2,000,000€, he remains anonymous and we take him into our virtual portfolio of January 2016 as "Anonymous Talent 28".
Of the old selected players, most still have a very good peak estimate. Just "Anonymous Talent 21" dropped to 113 and probably will not bring a strong return. Most others developed very well. Here is the overview of our investments.
 |
| „Julian-Brandt“ von Fuguito Lizenziert unter CC-BY-SA 4.0 |
| Cohort | Investment | Up | Down | Profit | Rate of Return |
| Apr 15 | 6.700.000 € | 63% | 25,0% | 2.975.000 € | 44,40% |
| Jul 15 | 2.450.000 € | 83% | 0,0% | 2.750.000 € | 112,24% |
| Sep 15 | 1.250.000 € | 50% | 0,0% | 1.550.000 € | 124,00% |
| Jan 16 | 3.500.000 € | 0% | 0,0% | 0 € | 0,00% |
The investments done in April 2015 will be hold for one year soon. 63% of them raised in value while only 25% dropped. We made on the overall investment of 6.7M€ a profit of nearly 3M€ or more than 40%. But it is dwarfed by the July investments that lead to nearly the same profit despite of an investment of only 2.4M€. In total a return on investment of 112% in just half a year. So far this portfolio is still to see a player to actually drop in value. Less time, but even more return was the September 2015 portfolio. 50% of the players increased in value in the just four months since the summer transfer window closed. This portfolio also more than doubled the value since then.
This month we again have some drop out because they turned 20.
| Player | Transfermarkt | First Listed | Transfermarkt @ first listed | Goalimpact | PeakGI | Player Age | Drop Out |
| Anonymous Talent 6 | 50.000 € | Apr 15 | 50.000 € | 107 | 130 | 20 | Sep 15 |
| Anonymous Talent 7 | 750.000 € | Apr 15 | 500.000 € | 111 | 138 | 20 | Jan 16 |
| Anonymous Talent 10 | 150.000 € | Apr 15 | 200.000 € | 107 | 133 | 20 | Jan 16 |
| Anonymous Talent 14 | 200.000 € | Apr 15 | 250.000 € | 108 | 134 | 20 | Jan 16 |
All of the new drop-outs (Talent 7, 10 and 14) are still considered promising talents. We will change the rules and keep them in the portfolio.
