FIFA 22 wonderkids: The best hidden gems and young players with the highest potential

The rising stars of the beautiful game.

Guide by Matthew Reynolds / Lottie Lynn

Updated on 24 September 2021

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:

FIFA 22 official gameplay trailer

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.

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.

fifa_22_best_wonderkids_young_players_2 — Mbappé remains the best young player with the highest potential - but there are other players with more room for growth out there...

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?