Rising Stars: 20 Talents to Watch in 2025

• Jesse Wieten

  football editor

If the signs are not deceiving, the Dutch team will no longer have a striker problem in a few years. There are plenty of center forwards on our annual talent list and we have had to leave out a lot of them. There is no shortage of talent, not just up front, but in all positions.

With the help of experts from Dutch youth football, we compile our list every year with twenty of today’s great talents, this time born on or after January 1, 2006. They are presented in random order.

His father Kemy played for the Dutch Juniors and Curaçao and spent a large part of his career in England. It is logical that Demiane Agustien, born in Oss, also has several English clubs behind his name.

Arsenal is now his club. He even trained with the first one. Agustien is a playmaker with an exceptional kick in his left foot. He puts the balls where he wants them.

Paulo Da Silva knows the cameras are on him. At NEC under 19, all his actions are filmed by his father and brother, content creator Eric Da Silva. Fourteen goals are listed online, making him the top scorer in the competition. Good for an NEC member.

Ajax? Feyenoord? PSV? Even against the top clubs, Paulo was unstoppable. The striker scored a hat-trick at De Toekomst and he actually did the same at Varkenoord, were it not for the fact that a nice lob was wrongly disallowed for offside.

Before every match at last summer’s European Championships in Romania, captain Givairo Read gave a spontaneous and passionate speech in the dressing room to inspire his teammates from the Dutch Under-19 team.

As a native Texel and youth player for AZ, Kasper Boogaard had to look for a host family in Alkmaar and he found it with the Hartog family. That saved trips by boat from the Wadden Island.

Boogaard stands out at Jong AZ with his insight and passing with both feet. Jasper Hartog was the recipient of four of his eight assists this season and that is not surprising. It is the same Hartog, son of, with whom he shared a room in the host family.

Earlier this month, on a Tuesday afternoon in an empty Arena, Aaron Bouwman scored his first official goal for Ajax from Oscar Gloukh’s corner at the near post. In the preparation he had already been accurate against Celtic with a goalkeeper.

He can score goals, but the 1.88 meter tall Haarlemmer is especially promising as a defender. He himself set the bar high after that goal against FC Groningen. “Virgil van Dijk is my role model,” he said.

With the purchase of Ayoub Oufkir, AZ added a fifth winner of the European Under-19 Championship to the selection. It was not without reason that he was warmly welcomed by Kees Smit at his presentation in Alkmaar.

Oufkir, who went through the entire Sparta youth academy, is leaving his second home with Het Kasteel. The left-footed right winger has the opportunity to push his limits in Alkmaar.

PSV does not necessarily have to look outside the door to succeed Joey Veerman. With the Belgian promise Noah Fernandez and the Dutch talent Joël van den Berg, the Eindhoven team has a lot of potential.

Van den Berg is a physically strong and dynamic midfielder with good technique. He made his debut in the first team in August and is increasingly making his mark at Jong PSV. Last week he scored twice against Almere City.

Sometimes a player doesn’t need much time to make an impression. Robin van Cruijsen made a spectacular entrance into the Premier League at FC Volendam, with a careless curl in the cross against Excelsior as the highlight.

Furthermore, the left foot made passes, set teammates free for the goalkeeper and added a goal and two assists to his statistics. Due to physical problems it is quiet now, but we will hopefully hear more from Van Cruijsen in the new year.

As a 16-year-old, Emre Ünüvar played for Ajax under 19 last season. A goal by the striker was always received with great cheers by family and friends on the sidelines, with his older brother Naci Ünüvar also regularly present.

This season, Emre Ünüvar is taking his next steps at Jong Ajax at the age of 17 and he is at the top of the top scorers list of the Youth League, the youth equivalent of the Champions League, with nine goals in six games. Next year Ajax 1 for the robust goalgetter?

He was already a great promise, but it all came together for Kees Smit at the European Under-19 Championship. Best player of the tournament, top scorer of the tournament and of course the main prize, the European title.

The question is whether Smit will also help AZ win a top prize. He should hit the jackpot, with Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Manchester City mentioned as interested clubs.

A goal machine, that’s what he is. Robin van Duiven scored all the time in the youth ranks and this season the striker at Jong PSV in the first division is also finding the net from all corners and positions. The counter is now at fourteen.

The Almelo native is strong, has a hard shot, is often in the right place and can put a free kick into the goal from thirty meters. Nevertheless, his future at PSV is uncertain. His contract expires in mid-2026.

Jorrel Hato was way ahead of his time. He made his debut for Ajax at the age of 16 and for the Dutch national team at the age of 17. Now, more than two years later, Hato is still young enough for this list.

After his transfer to Chelsea last summer, Hato must be patient. His playing time is limited in London and in the minutes he gets he is not convincing. The next international match is far away for the time being.

“There is more talent now than in the past two years that I was a coach here,” PSV coach Peter Bosz said recently, referring, among others, to Fabian Merién. The 17-year-old defender made his debut against GVVV in the cup.

The calm that the young man radiated was striking. What made Merién’s entrance extra special is that he was born in Veldhoven, close to Eindhoven. A local boy in the first of the multi-million company PSV.

He may be the most complete striker on the list, but patience is the magic word for Shaqueel van Persie on the road to full fitness. Partly due to growing pains, he has played few youth matches in recent years.

But when he played, he impressed. Beautiful was the moment when he scored the winning goal for Feyenoord under 19 as a substitute in March after months of absence. The shirt went off with pure joy. Things have gone better since then, with his debut in the first team being the next milestone.

In October, Shane Kluivert scored a beautiful goal against his old club Paris Saint-Germain in the Youth League and in December the attacker scored twice against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Furthermore, the youngest member of the Kluivert football family plays his matches for Barça Atlètic, the second team of the Catalan top club. Will there be a reunion with Lamine Yamal, a teammate from the youth, in the first team of Barcelona?

After Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro, the next goalkeeping talent has arrived at AZ: Kiyani Zeggen. Last season he scored penalties against Benfica, Real Madrid and Manchester City in the Youth League.

Zeggen has an imposing physique and has a cannon shot with his left hand. Out of position, he reaches the other side of the field from his goal area and can create danger in the enemy half.

Left foot Nijstad has been regarded as a top talent of the FC Twente/Heracles academy for years. The youth international was in the interest of top clubs at home and abroad, but opted for a contract with Twente.

A debut was inevitable for the center defender from Vriezenveen. In the derby against Heracles, this happened as a replacement for the injured Robin Pröpper.

Sean Steur will never forget his first Classic and Ajax fans will also remember the performance of the starting debutant. Symbol of hope for resurrection, with a leading role for youth.

The 17-year-old Sturgeon impressed with his cleverness, his hard and accurate passes, his dribbling and his graceful style. A talent almost like the one he played in red and white at the club in times gone by.

Last season, Elijah Dijkstra was one of the standouts at Jong AZ, he made his debut in the first team and became European champion with the Dutch under-19 team. A great year for the fast right back.

This year there is trial and error. In August, Jong AZ coach Leeroy Echteld painfully replaced him before half time and after a series of starting places in the first team in November he disappeared back to the bench.

The times of Ayoub ‘The Monster’ Ouarghi from the popular videos of Touzani TV are long behind us. But when he took on Cambuur with Feyenoord under 21 in Friesland, the youth still shouted his nickname.

Things are now starting to get serious for the midfielder. At the beginning of December, a packed Kuip even chanted his name and he made his debut against PEC in Feyenoord 1. We now have to wait for monstrous actions on the highest stage.

This talent list has been a tradition for many years now. How did the 20 talents from previous years fare? Below is a flashback to the 2018 list: where are the talents from back then, seven years later?