although he is officially Africa’s single most exciting young tallest of the last year, Got it
I’m not sure, how highly do you rate Asisat Oshoala and Victor Osimhen? Because they won it the 2 seasons before.
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I think this is a being a tad pedantic, however, I would agree that players like Mbappe, Dembele, Pulisic, and a few others are more exciting and I would have them over Iwobi in a heartbeat, but top 20 - yeah, he deserves to be in that convo for simply having broken into top club squad and playing minutes at 19/20.
Actually he isn’t, ‘Most Promising Talent of the Year’ was won by Iheanacho. Iwobi won the Youth Player of the Year.
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Is youth player of the year not better than youth prospect?
Can’t say I’ve heard of either to be fair, I guess they are examples of unforfilled potential as opposed to the numerous passed winners that have gone on to be amazing like iwobi 
Add Martial, Rashford, Bernado Silva, Lemar, Bakayako, Tielemans, Alli, Saul, Sane, Sterling, Iheanacho, Goretzka, Werner, Dolburg and Bellerin into the players who are 22 or under and are more proven than Iwobi.
Iwobi has some potential, he’s powerful, good close control, intelligent with good link up but he needs to add more end product to his game. At this age unless a player is really special you can’t tell who will progress to be a top player in the future.
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‘Most Promising Talent’ has been around longer, the youth player award has only been around 3 years:
CAF Most Promising Talent of the Year
Year Player Name National Team Club
2016 Kelechi Iheanacho Nigeria England Manchester City
2015 Etebo Oghenekaro Nigeria Nigeria Warri Wolves
2014 Yacine Brahimi Algeria Portugal Porto
2013 Kelechi Iheanacho Nigeria England Manchester City
2012 Mohamed Salah Egypt Switzerland Basel
2011 Souleymane Coulibaly Ivory Coast England Tottenham Hotspur
2010 Kwadwo Asamoah Ghana Italy Udinese
2009 Dominic Adiyiah Ghana Italy Milan
2008 Salomon Kalou Ivory Coast England Chelsea
2007 Clifford Mulenga Zambia South Africa Pretoria University
2006 Taye Taiwo Nigeria France Olympique Marseille
2005 John Obi Mikel Nigeria England Chelsea
2004 Obafemi Martins Nigeria Italy Internazionale
2003 Obafemi Martins Nigeria Italy Internazionale
2002 Mido Egypt Netherlands Ajax
2001 Pedro Mantorras Angola Portugal Benfica
CAF Youth Player of the Year
Year Player Name National Team Club
2016 Alex Iwobi (♂) Nigeria England Arsenal
2015 Victor Osimhen (♂) Nigeria Nigeria Ultimate Strikers Academy
2014 Asisat Oshoala (♀) Nigeria Nigeria Rivers Angels
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Hmm odd, Why did they make the new award it makes not sense
Some of those have had flashes, but not consistently contributed to first team and some, like B. Silva turn 23 before the season starts… not disagreeing with you per se, but I don’t think top 20 is unreasonable.
I personally love Tielemans, so I would agree there… same with Alli, Ineanacho, Rashford, Lemar, Goretzka, Werner, and Dolberg… Bellerin has shown a lot of promise but man he seems to have regressed massively.
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So many new posts in the thread! I assumed he must have been sold while I was at work!!
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Lol
Iwobi needs to work harder off the ball and improve the defensive side of his game. He has legitimate talent but I don’t see him ever becoming a truly dynamic goal threat. He doesn’t have the nose for goal or the instincts to get into the most dangerous positions. So his best future is will be as an all around winger and wide playmaker. But for that he needs to up his workrate and commitment to defense.
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Offensively I think we have enough ‘runners’ tbh. I feel like improving his passing would be a higher priority for him and distinguish him a lot more from the other players.
I think it’s a bit of stretch, making him seem in the world class bracket which would be overhyping him a bit. I forgot quite a few players too like Gabriel Jesus, Gnabry, Keita, Dahoud, Schick and I’m sure I forgot others and I’m sure there’s loads more South American’s I know nothing about.
I hope he does well but we’ve seen countless decent talents not goto be anything particularly great like Vela, Diaby, Denilson, Bendtner, Kevin Campbell etc etc. Then there’s Walcott, Chamberlain, Ramsey and Wilshere, at times most thought they might have progressed much more. People get excited about young players but few go onto be elite.
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He is starting for Arsenal football club and was contributing at 19/20… that is pretty remarkable regardless and does deserve a lot of credit. Added to that, you can’t help but notice his maturity and composure for his age, even when our team was at times kind of dysfunctional and even a shambles a times last season. He is rated highly for good reason. Doesn’t mean he will make it big… but neither will some of the other names we just bandied back and forth.
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Also, for the record, I was never a fan of Denilson, Bendtner, and while I liked Diaby, I was never on the hype train that some others were on, and Vela definitely had the ingredients but like I said, it is math… very few make it - by definition. The rest depress me - Walcott, Chambo, Ramsey, and Wilshere are terrible examples of where I am left without much argument other than to say maybe our development of them (or injuries) did them in, not their fundamental ingredients (although I think in retrospect if you reran the Walcott model 10 times, it wouldn’t get any better - Wilshere I could see coming good in a few runs).
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Dembele. Top Young Talent in Europe for me. I rate him as high as Mbappe. One man defense wrecking crew. Future balon d’or runner up if he doesn’t stagnate. I’d honestly take him over Mbappe.
Why? Do you watch him on a regular basis?
We should sign him.
I think that’s what Barcelona are thinking too. He’s way out of Arsenal’s reach.