Who are the U23 players with the best credentials to make soon their national A-team debut with one of the nations in the 20 top positions of the FIFA rankings? Issue number 326 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post answers this question by considering the experience level that eligible footballers have accumulated during the last year (minutes weighted by sporting level of employment teams or competitions played).

Jules Koundé is the best positioned U23 footballer to celebrate soon his first cap with the reigning world champions of France. The Sevilla’s centre back outranks Moussa Diaby (Bayer Leverkusen) and Boubacar Kamara (Olympique de Marseille). The three U23 uncapped players eligible for England with the greatest experience level over the last year are James Justin (Leicester City), Dwight McNeil (Burnley) and Aaron Ramsdale (Sheffield United).

For the other top nations, Arnaud Bodart (Standard Liège) leads the table for Belgium, Roger Ibañez for Brazil (or eventually Uruguay), Pedro “Pote” Gonçalves (Sporting CP) for Portugal, Marc Cucurella (Getafe) for Spain, Cristian Romero (Atalanta) for Argentina, Gabriele Zappa (Cagliari) for Italy, Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen) for Germany and Érick Sánchez (Pachuca) for Mexico.