Football: Octavian Popescu, 13th place in rankinks of players under 20 (CIES)

Octavian Popescu, the FCSB midfielder, is on the 13th place in the rankings of the players under 20, made up by the CIES Football Observatory (International Centre for Sports Studies - CIES), on the first position being Pedri, the revelation of FC Barcelona and the national team of Spain. The issue no. 344 of the weekly letter of CIES presents the top 100 footballers in the world, who have not yet turned 20 and who have accumulated the most experience in official senior matches in 2021. Octavian Popescu, born on December 27, 2002, played 2,326 minutes in 32 matches in this period, scoring 6 goals. Popescu received 53 points for experience. Among the top 100 there are two more Romanians: Cristian Dumitru, from FC Arges, and Stefan Baiaram, from the University of Craiova, both with 34 points. Cristian Dumitru, born on December 13, 2001, played 2,039 minutes in 29 matches, scoring 4 goals. Stefan Baiaram, born on December 31, 2002, has 1,515 minutes of play in 28 matches, having socred twice. Pedri Gonzalez, the Barcelona footballer, with 3,827 minutes played in 49 matches and 2 goals, is on the 1st place, receiving 100 points for experience. Pedri is followed by Mason Greenwood of Manchester United, with 75 points, and Dutch Ryan Gravenberch of Ajax Amsterdam, with 70 points. Greenwood has 2,327 minutes of play in 36 matches in which he has scored 10 goals Gravenberch played 2,790 minutes in 37 matches, having scored four times. On the 4th place is Matheus Martinelli, Fluminense's midfielder, the best ranked among the players playing outside Europe. The top 10 ranking is completed by: 5. Goncalo Inacio (Sporting Lisbon) 6. Bukayo Saka (Arsenal London) 7. Fabricio Diaz (Liverpool Montevideo) 8. Jeremy Doku (Rennes) 9. Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund) 10. Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen) 10. Lucas Calegari (Fluminense) Octavian Popescu is on a par with Eduardo Camavinga, Rennes midfielder, one of the hopes of French football. On the 19th place there is Ilia Zabarnyi, Mircea Lucescu's player at Dinamo Kiev.AGERPRES (RO - editor: Mircea Lazaroniu; EN - author: Bogdan Gabaroi, editor: Adina Panaitescu)   Photo source: www.fcsb.ro