Rating the YNT: Top 5 men's forwards
Our four-part series on the best of the best in the U.S. men’s youth national team pool at every position reaches its final waypoint today.
Forwards. The glamor position.
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The U.S. pool has been devoid of real back-to-goal No. 9 prospects for years now, and that holds true to form in the most recent reckoning of USYNT prospects up top. There aren’t many in the Robert Lewandowski mold here, which inevitably means our forward pool looks more agile than bruising. That’s OK, to a degree, but diversity in the player pool is vital, and the fact that there’s only one true 9 here probably shows a different path forward for the future if that’s to change.
In any case, this is a list of my five top current USYNT forward prospects in the pool for the future. As always, note that the requirement is that each player is currently USYNT eligible (U23 and down) and has not yet had a full USMNT cap. A quick programming note: I decided to roll in attacking wingers to the forwards group. A lot of these guys have played wide men in 4-3-3s, which means they operated as forwards. I think it’s fair to lump them all in together.
Without any further ado, let’s roll.
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