Messi’s 10 Future Stars Picks: How Good Has His Eye For Talent Been?
Lionel Messi has announced his latest Messi+10 prospects, but what is his track record over the years?
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Lionel Messi has backed 55 footballers for future sucess through a series of campaigns dating back to 2015.
Some have become superstars, others have fallen short of expectations, so how successful has the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner really been at spotting future talent?
Lionel Messi has spent his career making the extraordinary look routine, but identifying the next generation of football stars is a different challenge.
The Argentine has repeatedly been asked to identify the players capable of reaching the top of the sport, from his early adidas-backed selections to his latest Messi+10 campaign.
His history of highlighting young talent stretches back more than a decade. It includes players who went on to win the Champions League, establish themselves as international stars and become household names, alongside others who never reached the heights predicted for them.
Messi’s latest list, announced on October 11, 2026, has brought the discussion back into focus. Arsenal teenager Max Dowman is among the 10 players selected, alongside Mexican prospect Gilberto Mora and several other emerging talents.
But to judge Messi’s record fairly, it is necessary to look beyond the latest names and revisit every major group he has endorsed.
2015: The original 'Backed by Messi' campaign
The story began in September 2015, when adidas launched its Backed by Messi campaign. Ten young players were selected to wear Messi’s signature boots and follow their development over the following year.
The 10 selections were:
1. Robert Kenedy
2. Maxwel Cornet
3. Jérémie Boga
4. Accursio Bentivegna
5. James Wilson
6. Timo Werner
7. Aleksei Miranchuk
8. Gyasi Zardes
9. Rony Lopes
10. Khiry Shelton
The success stories
Werner was arguably the biggest success from the original group.
After developing at Stuttgart, he became one of the Bundesliga’s most dangerous forwards at RB Leipzig. His 28 league goals in the 2019–20 season earned him a move to Chelsea, where he won the Champions League in 2021.
His career later lost momentum, but he still established himself as a major European striker and a regular for Germany.
Miranchuk also enjoyed a respectable career, becoming a Russian international and winning the Europa League with Atalanta in 2024.
Boga developed into an established player in European football, representing clubs including Sassuolo, Atalanta, Nice, and Juventus.
Cornet also enjoyed a lengthy career in France and England, winning the Conference League with West Ham.
Zardes, meanwhile, became a regular for the United States national team, collecting 67 international caps.
The ones who fell short
The rest of the group had mixed outcomes.
Kenedy never became a regular star at Chelsea despite arriving with considerable promise.
Wilson made an early impression at Manchester United but struggled to establish himself in senior football.
Bentivegna spent much of his career in Italy’s lower divisions, while Shelton failed to make a lasting impact in Germany after leaving MLS.
Verdict: Werner was a genuine success, with several other players building solid professional careers. However, the first list was far from a collection of guaranteed superstars.
2016: Kasper Dolberg, Patrick Roberts and the next group
Adidas followed the original campaign with another group of 10 players in 2016.
This time, the selections included talents from France, the Netherlands, Italy, Russia, the United States and Thailand, as well as England.
The 10 selections were:
1. Jean-Kévin Augustin
2. Gabriel Boschilia
3. Davide Calabria
4. Kasper Dolberg
5. Nadya Karpova
6. Kekuta Manneh
7. Alex Muyl
8. Nathan
9. Patrick Roberts
10. Chanathip Songkrasin
Dolberg was one of the more promising picks. He enjoyed a breakthrough season at Ajax in 2016–17, scoring 23 goals in all competitions and attracting attention across Europe.
Calabria progressed through AC Milan’s academy to become a senior player and captain of the Italian club. Chanathip, nicknamed the “Thai Messi”, became one of Thailand’s best-known footballers and made a successful move to Japan’s J.League.
Roberts, meanwhile, was highly rated when Manchester City signed him, but his career was dominated by loan spells before he established himself at Sunderland.
Augustin won the Golden Boot and Player of the Tournament awards at the 2016 European Under-19 Championship with France, but he never became a consistent star at senior club level.
Other selections had similarly uneven careers. Boschilia showed promise at Monaco before a serious knee injury disrupted his progress, while Manneh enjoyed a professional career in North America without making the leap to a European elite club.
Verdict: Dolberg and Calabria are among the stronger selections, but the second group again produced few genuine global superstars.
2020: Messi selected 15 rising talents
In 2020, Messi collaborated with trading-card company Topps on a collection featuring 15 young players under the category Youth on the Rise.
This group is particularly interesting because several players were already highly rated or had established themselves in senior football. It was less a case of Messi discovering unknown prospects and more an endorsement of players he believed could reach the next level.
The 15 selections were:
1. Christian Pulisic
2. Jadon Sancho
3. Ousmane Dembélé
4. Frenkie de Jong
5. Trent Alexander-Arnold
6. Houssem Aouar
7. Mason Mount
8. João Félix
9. Phil Foden
10. Kai Havertz
11. Benjamin Pavard
12. Joshua Kimmich
13. Luka Jović
14. Kylian Mbappé
15. Éder Militão
The biggest hits
Mbappé was already a world-class forward by 2020, so including him was hardly a daring prediction. Nevertheless, his subsequent achievements have confirmed his place among football’s elite.
Foden developed into a key player for Manchester City, winning multiple Premier League titles. Alexander-Arnold established himself as one of the most influential attacking full-backs of his generation, while Kimmich became a central figure for Bayern Munich and Germany.
De Jong became an important midfielder for Barcelona, and Dembélé later won the Ballon d’Or after a remarkable period with Paris Saint-Germain.
Havertz won the Champions League with Chelsea and later became an important player for Arsenal. Militão established himself as a defender for Real Madrid, while Pavard collected major trophies with Bayern Munich and Inter.
These are substantial successes, although several of them were already established players when the cards were released.
The more complicated cases
Pulisic has enjoyed success with Chelsea and AC Milan, while Mount won the Champions League with Chelsea before experiencing a more difficult period at Manchester United.
Sancho showed enormous potential at Borussia Dortmund but struggled to reproduce his best form consistently after moving to Manchester United. João Félix has experienced several club changes, while Jović never reached the level expected after his move to Real Madrid.
Aouar also failed to establish himself among Europe's elite midfielders.
Verdict: The 2020 selection looks strong when judged by the number of players who went on to win major trophies or become established internationals. But it is the least straightforward group to score as a prediction exercise because so many were already prominent talents.
2024: Lamine Yamal becomes the standout pick
After a gap in the formal campaigns, adidas launched Messi+10 in 2024, with Messi selecting 10 young footballers from the men's and women's games.
The 10 selections were:
1. Lamine Yamal
2. Kenan Yildiz
3. Linda Caicedo
4. Vicky López
5. Claudio Echeverri
6. Antonio Nusa
7. Jaedyn Shaw
8. Joel Ndala
9. Assan Ouédraogo
10. Eliesse Ben Seghir
Yamal is the obvious headline name.
The Barcelona winger has progressed from an exciting teenage prospect into one of the most important young players in world football, establishing himself for club and country and collecting major individual recognition.
Yildiz has become an important attacking player for Juventus and Turkey, while Caicedo has continued to develop into a prominent player in women's football.
Vicky López has gained senior experience at Barcelona, while the other players remain at different stages of their development.
Echeverri, for example, arrived in European football with considerable hype, but his progress has been less straightforward than Yamal’s.
Verdict: Yamal is a major success, with Yildiz and Caicedo providing further encouraging signs. The list remains young, but it has already produced the clearest superstar of all the campaigns.
2025: Nico Paz and Rio Ngumoha lead the next generation
The second Messi+10 selection arrived in October 2025, featuring eight male players and two female players.
The 10 selections were:
1. Nico Paz
2. Kendry Páez
3. Rio Ngumoha
4. Kader Meïté
5. Clara Serrajordi
6. Brajan Gruda
7. Mika Godts
8. Andrey Santos
9. Lily Yohannes
10. Rodrigo Mora
The most visible early success has been Ngumoha, who attracted widespread attention after becoming Liverpool’s youngest-ever goalscorer with a dramatic late winner against Newcastle United in August 2025.
Paz has also continued to build his reputation through his performances for Como and Argentina, while Gruda and Andrey Santos have gained further senior experience.
The biggest cautionary example is Páez. Once regarded as one of South America’s most exciting prospects, he has encountered difficulties finding consistent opportunities as his career has progressed.
However, this group is still too young to judge definitively. A promising debut season does not guarantee a long career at the top, just as a difficult spell does not mean a player will never fulfil their potential.
Verdict: There are encouraging signs, particularly with Ngumoha and Paz, but it is far too early to declare the campaign a success or failure.
2026: Max Dowman headlines Messi’s latest selection
The third Messi+10 group was announced on October 11, 2026, with seven male players and three female players.
The 10 selections were:
1. Tomás Aranda
2. Can Uzun
3. Gilberto Mora
4. Max Dowman
5. Zavier Gozo
6. Jesús Rodríguez
7. Kees Smit
8. Chloe Sarwie
9. Giovanna Waksman
10. Lotta Wrede
Dowman is among the most recognisable names in the group, having attracted considerable attention for his technical ability and attacking confidence at Arsenal.
Mora has also emerged as a major prospect in Mexican football, while Can Uzun has already gained senior experience in Germany.
The list includes players from across Europe and the Americas, continuing the campaign’s international focus and its inclusion of women's football.
But this group has only just been announced. It would be unfair to assess Messi’s success rate using players who have barely begun their senior careers.
Verdict: Potential, rather than proven success, is the only reasonable judgement at this stage.
So, what is Messi’s success rate?
Across the six major campaign groups, Messi has backed 55 players. But there is no official success-rate figure, and the result depends on how success is defined.
If the test is identifying future global superstars, the standout examples include Mbappé, Foden, Alexander-Arnold, Kimmich, Dembélé and Yamal. Werner, Yildiz and Caicedo also provide strong evidence that some selections have developed into high-level players.
If the test is identifying players who become established professionals, the list is much longer.
But the campaigns have also featured players whose careers stalled, who struggled to make the leap to elite football or who are still trying to establish themselves. And in 2020, some of the biggest names were already stars when Messi selected them.
Messi’s record is neither a perfect scouting masterclass nor a failure.
His selections have included several of the biggest players of the modern era, but they have also included prospects who never reached the level once expected of them.
That is the reality of identifying young footballers: potential is only the beginning, and development depends on opportunity, coaching, consistency and circumstances.
The strongest evidence in Messi’s favour is the number of players he has backed who have gone on to win major trophies and establish themselves at the highest level. The strongest counterargument is that several were already highly rated when he selected them.
For now, Yamal stands out as the clearest success from the recent campaigns, while Ngumoha, Dowman, Mora and the latest group have their careers ahead of them.
Messi has already demonstrated an extraordinary ability to play football. Whether his eye for future stars proves equally exceptional will take more time to establish.
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