FIFA 22 wonderkids: The best hidden gems and young players with the highest potential
The rising stars of the beautiful game.
FIFA 22 wonderkids come in two forms - a list of the best youngest players with the highest potential ratings and a list of hidden gems with huge room for improvement.
This gives you two things to take advantage of - the players with the highest rating they can reach (spoilers - it's Kylian Mbappé for another year!) and the players with the most growth over time, which is useful if you're looking for some bargains in career mode.
On this page:
If you're interested in specific positions, we have pages on the best FIFA 22 goalkeepers, best FIFA 22 defenders, best FIFA 22 strikers, best FIFA 22 midfielders, and the best FIFA 22 wingers.
FIFA 22 wonderkids: The best young players with the highest potential in FIFA 22
Here's a list of the 20 best wonderkids in FIFA 22, classed as the players with the highest overall potential rating.
This means there are a lot of known players on there - Mbappé, Foden and Alexander-Arnold among them - which, incredibly, still have scope to get better.
Ultimately, this is where you'll find the absolute best young players - useful if you want the best young centre back with the highest potential rating, say, or the future best forward in the world.
Note - we've ordered this table by highest max Overall rating, as opposed to the maximum improvement possible - though that is visible in a dedicated column (with Ansu Fati looking to have the biggest jump from their current to potential rating).
| Rank | Player | Club | Position | Current | Potential | Total Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kylian Mbappé | Paris Saint-Germain | ST | 91 | 95 | 4 |
| 2 | Erling Haaland | Borussia Dortmund | ST | 88 | 93 | 4 |
| 3 | Gianluigi Donnarumma | Paris Saint-Germain | GK | 89 | 93 | 4 |
| 4 | Kai Havertz | Chelsea | CAM | 84 | 92 | 8 |
| 5 | Phil Foden | Manchester City | CAM | 84 | 92 | 8 |
| 6 | Trent Alexander-Arnold | Liverpool | RB | 87 | 92 | 5 |
| 7 | Pedri | FC Barcelona | CM | 81 | 91 | 10 |
| 8 | João Félix | Atlético de Madrid | CF | 83 | 91 | 8 |
| 9 | Matthijs de Ligt | Piemonte Calcio | CB | 85 | 91 | 6 |
| 10 | Jadon Sancho | Manchester United | RM | 87 | 91 | 4 |
| 11 | Ansu Fati | FC Barcelona | LW | 76 | 90 | 14 |
| 12 | Ryan Gravenberch | Ajax | CM | 78 | 90 | 12 |
| 13 | Vinícius Jr. | Real Madrid | LW | 80 | 90 | 10 |
| 14 | Dayot Upamecano | Bayern München | CB | 82 | 90 | 8 |
| 15 | Ferran Torres | Manchester City | RW | 82 | 90 | 8 |
| 16 | Federico Valverde | Real Madrid | CM | 83 | 89 | 6 |
| 17 | Federico Chiesa | Piemonte Calcio | RW | 83 | 89 | 6 |
| 18 | Mason Mount | Chelsea | CAM | 83 | 89 | 6 |
| 19 | Jules Koundé | Sevilla FC | CB | 83 | 89 | 6 |
| 20 | Marcus Rashford | Manchester United | LM | 85 | 89 | 4 |
FIFA 22 hidden gems: The best young players with the highest potential in career mode
As well as the above young players with the highest potential cap, another consideration are young players with the most room for improvement.
These are known as hidden gems - lesser-known players which, if snapped up early and improved upon, can you give you a real bargain in the career mode.
Every player in the below list will grow by at least 23 points in their Overall stat - a huge jump compared to the above table of wonderkids, where the highest growth possible is 14.
These players will take a fair bit longer to reach their potential, but if you're in it for the long run with your Career Mode saves, this will make for some incredible investments!
| Rank | Player | Club | Position | Current | Potential | Total Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris Brady | Chicago Fire FC | GK | 51 | 77 | 26 |
| 2 | Fred Emmings | Minnesota United FC | GK | 48 | 73 | 25 |
| 3 | Osvaldo Cisneros | Sporting KC | CAM | 49 | 74 | 25 |
| 4 | Ben Chrisene | Aston Villa | CM | 51 | 76 | 25 |
| 5 | Aidan Denholm | Hearts | RW | 52 | 77 | 25 |
| 6 | Antwoine Hackford | Sheffield United | ST | 59 | 84 | 25 |
| 7 | Matteo Campagna | Vancouver Whitecaps | CB | 49 | 73 | 24 |
| 8 | Rav van den Berg | PEC Zwolle | CB | 59 | 83 | 24 |
| 9 | Tayvon Gray | New York City FC | CB | 51 | 74 | 23 |
| 10 | Jean-Aniel Assi | CF Montréal | ST | 52 | 75 | 23 |
| 11 | Nikolas Muci | FC Lugano | ST | 53 | 76 | 23 |
| 12 | José Herrera | Bolívar | CB | 53 | 76 | 23 |
| 13 | Griffin Yow | D.C. United | RM | 54 | 77 | 23 |
| 14 | Alex Robertson | Ross County | CM | 58 | 81 | 23 |
| 15 | Dane Scarlett | Tottenham Hotspur | ST | 63 | 86 | 23 |
Stuck for who to make up your team? We have pages on FIFA 22 Wonderkids, the best FIFA 22 goalkeepers, best FIFA 22 defenders, best FIFA 22 strikers, best FIFA 22 wingers, and the best FIFA 22 midfielders. For FUT fans, we have guides to how Chemistry works and a full Chemistry Styles list, too.
Other things to know about the best young players, wonderkids and hidden gems in FIFA 22
As well as the above, there are a couple of points worth bearing in mind when hunting down your next world class talent:
- Remember that age is an important factor here. Whilst younger, lower-Overall players might come at a better price, if you can afford more developed players then often it's a safer bet, and a faster one. You might not be fitting in four, five or six seasons into one Career Mode playthrough, after all, and so may never see a seventeen-year-old's full potential.
- For those longer playthroughs, we recommend players with a starting Overall ranking as low as possible to keep the cost down - which is where the hidden gems table above comes in handy.
- As always, be flexible with your positions. It's more of a general tip for FIFA 22 anyway, but don't forget that often, players have expertise in more than one spot on the team sheet, and it's more about their technical attributes like Pace, Dribbling, or Finishing that make a difference.
- For bargains, think about the size of the club you're buying from - are you more likely to get a good price from the likes of Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa, or would it be best to try and get Chicago Fire FC's Chris Brady?