Konstantinos Karetsas: KRC Genk’s most valuable player in Belgium’s 2nd league

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It wasn’t enough for Paris Brunner to play professionally, but last year couldn’t have gone better: outstanding goal rate in the BVB youth team, Fritz Walter Gold Medal, U17 European Champion and U17 World Champion as the best player of the tournament – wouldn’t that be a downer. In October, Brunner made negative headlines when he was suspended from BVB for disciplinary reasons. Although the 17-year-old was pardoned, he is now likely to be under particular scrutiny – but he was able to directly build on his strong performances at the World Cup.

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Paul Okon continues in his father’s footsteps. After moving to the Benfica youth team, Okon Jr. missed out. Barely played a minute in the U19 and was promoted to the U23 for the 2023/24 season. He was also able to win a regular place there straight away.

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The last year was not a good one for Christos Alexiou. The central defender missed the rest of the 2022/23 season due to injury and only returned to action for the Nerazzurri U18s in mid-November after an eleven-month break.

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Mike Kleijn is still one step ahead at Feyenoord, but it wasn’t enough to make the jump to the professionals. The playmaker also found himself in a new position last season and played as a left-back. In the current season, however, we went back to the center of midfield.

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Henry Gray, who was born in Germany, has already fulfilled his dream of Europe. The goalkeeper moved to the youth team of the English second division team Ipswich Town for the 2023/24 season. The first nomination for the New Zealand senior national team followed in October.

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Luka Parkadze went to FC Bayern in the summer as planned, but the offensive talent didn’t stay there for long. In mid-August he went on loan to the Austrian second division club FC Admira Wacker Mödling, where – also due to injury – he only made a short appearance.

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Luphumlo Sifumba announced last year that he wanted to leave South Africa “abroad as quickly as possible”. However, the midfield talent is still under contract with league leaders Cape Town City FC and is gaining further brief professional experience. However, there should be no shortage of interested parties. In addition to clubs from France, Spain and Portugal, Red Bull Salzburg is also said to be keeping an eye on Sifumba.

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Omar Megeed has been officially part of HSV’s professional squad since the summer, but after making his debut as the youngest player in the club’s history, he has only been able to make one further short appearance. After his return from a broken metatarsal, after which he mainly played in the U19 and U21 teams, Megeed was stopped again by a torn ligament at the end of the season.

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At the beginning of the year, Martin Kern made the jump to the Puskás Akadémia FC professional team and completed his first two short appearances. Hungary’s U17 captain has had to miss the new season due to injury.

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Theo Sander has taken the next step in his career and moved from Aalborg BK to Danish record champions FC Copenhagen – for just over 1 million euros. Sander is number two between the posts for the Champions League participants and has played one game so far, but next summer regular goalkeeper Kamil Grabara will leave Copenhagen for Wolfsburg – for Sander the chance to take the next step.

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Beknaz Almazbekov has now made three international appearances for Kyrgyzstan, but it hasn’t been enough for a professional appearance at Galatasaray. However, the Istanbul team believes in the talent of the offensive player, who is attracting attention among young talent with decent scoring values. His contract was extended long-term until 2026 in September.

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Wisdom Amey must continue to be patient at Bologna. Although the once youngest player in Serie A history was in the professional squad from time to time, there were no further appearances. But one thing has changed: Amey has initially decided against Togo and for the Italian association and is playing for the U19 team of the “Squadra Azzurra”.

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Yarek Gasiorowski very quickly took the hoped-for path to the top at Valencia FC. Starting the season with the reserves, the defensive talent has been an integral part of Rubén Baraja’s team since the beginning of October and has already appeared five times. In the Copa del Rey, Gasiorowski was even in the starting line-up for the first time – as a left-back, where he currently plays more often.

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Fabio Chiarodia moved from Werder to Gladbach for 2 million euros in the summer. The defensive talent has already played five times there, as many games as for the Bremen professionals. Mistakes such as a last-minute penalty against Freiburg are forgiven; Borussia believes he will play an important role in the future. With Italy’s U19s, Chiarodia also secured their first major title at the European Championships.

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Ever since his debut goal for Turkey against Germany, Kenan Yildiz has been on everyone’s lips. The ex-Bayern talent, who chose Juventus and ultimately his father’s hometown in 2022, made the jump to the professional team in Turin after an impressive year in the youth ranks, but still failed to score in five short appearances. Nevertheless, Yildiz’s market value will skyrocket in the upcoming update.

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Last year also had a new club in store for Joshua Wynder. For just under 1.1 million euros it went from Louisville City to Benfica Lisbon, where, in addition to games for the youth teams, there was also a stint for the reserves in the second division. In April, Wynder was also called up to the US national team for the first time.

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One step further in Portugal is Rodrigo Ribeiro, who is already part of the professional squad at Sporting and has played seven games in it – the talented striker has not yet played this season. Ribeiro mainly plays for the reserves in the 3rd league.

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Roger is one step further at SC Braga. The winger is still primarily used in the reserves, but is again regularly collecting minutes with the professionals. In total, Roger has already made 18 appearances in which he scored five goals.

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For Valentín Carboni, after his first year as a professional at Inter Milan with six appearances, his path led to AC Monza. The offensive talent should get more match practice with their Serie A rivals. After the first third of the season there are seven games to play. With Argentina’s U20, Carboni reached the round of 16 of the World Cup in May.

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On the same day as Jude Bellingham at Real, brother Jobe was also introduced as a new signing at AFC Sunderland in the summer. The transfer fee for Birmingham City was only 1.75 million euros, when Jude moved to BVB it was 25 million euros. The England U19 international has fought for a regular place with his championship rivals and has not missed a game and also scored his first three goals at professional level.

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With 8.5 million euros for Julien Duranville, BVB once again invested a high fee in a promising talent in January. However, the attacker was unlucky with injuries and was only able to play once each for the professionals and the U19s. The Dortmund team now wants to build up Duranville extremely carefully and very cautiously by initially giving him a chance to play in the youth departments.

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Désiré Doué, however, has remained loyal to his hometown club Stade Rennes and is working on his big breakthrough. Although the offensive talent is about to make his 50th professional appearance, Doué has not yet been able to secure a regular place. In October he was called up to France’s U21 team for the first time, where he quickly picked up a yellow-red card on his debut shortly after coming on as a substitute.

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Antonio Nusa has taken the final step towards becoming a regular at FC Bruges, but persistent back problems have recently put a stop to his plans. There are nine scorers in 53 professional appearances. Nusa also got off to a convincing start with the Norwegian national team, for which he made his debut in September. The attacker was directly involved in five goals in four international matches. The result: a 400 percent increase in market value.

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Vitor Roque will be remembered for a long time in 2023. In February, the offensive talent celebrated the South American Championship title with Brazil’s U20s, and he also became the top goalscorer with six goals. The reward followed in March with the debut for the “Seleção”. However, Athletico Paranaense refused to release him for the U20 World Cup; he should not be missing at the start of the Copa Libertadores and Série A – understandable, since Vitor Roque has 20 goals and eight assists in 43 games this season so far. Only a long foot injury prevented even better statistics. But his biggest dream came true with his €40 million move to Barça, which will take him to Spain next summer at the latest.

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