Angel Gomes: A Rare Talent Generating Huge Excitement at Manchester United

Angel Gomes has been on fire for Manchester United’s under-18s. The former captain of England’s under-16s, the teenager has made three starts and a substitute appearance at youth level this season, scoring four goals and providing three assists.

Numbers like that are bound to attract attention, but Gomes’ performances would have been drawing plaudits even without that level of end product. He has just turned 16, having been born—and for those of a certain age, this could be tough to hear—on August 31, 2000.

@agomes_47 Happy Birthday bro ❤️🎉 pic.twitter.com/URY6UIixVM

— DJ Buffonge (@DJBuffonge_) August 31, 2016

Regular United youth-team watcher Doron Salomon said: “He’s so young. That’s the thing I’ve still not quite got my head around. He’s always the youngest in his age group, and yet you’d have no idea apart from the fact he looks small.”

Being the standout star in an under-18 side having only been 16 for a few days is some achievement, and should the fast track he is on continue, he could be set for a meteoric rise.

So what does Gomes have which makes him such an exciting prospect?

Salomon added: “Obviously his close control, technique, dribbling and skill set is of an extremely high level, but for me the most impressive thing is how brave he is. We’re only a few games into the new under-18 season, and already he’s getting targeted by opposition sides who just want to kick lumps out of him. He gets up every time and brushes it off.”

In this first clip, we see evidence of this. United’s youngsters were up against Middlesbrough’s under-18s and the game was evenly matched at 1-1 after 50 minutes.

By the time the final whistle blew, it was 5-1 to United, and it is easy to see why Boro’s confidence collapsed when Gomes’ cross found on-trial Idris Kanu for the Red Devils’ second goal.

It was not the cross—which was decent—or the simple finish that did the damage. Rather it was Gomes’ truly remarkable ball control, and his ability to turn that into end product, which opened the floodgates.

He receives a pass fizzed into him in a pretty standard No. 10 position, a little over to the left. He has his back to goal, takes one step forward—towards his own goal—then immediately attempts a Cruyff turn between two Boro defenders.

One of them gets a small touch on the ball, but Gomes is quickest to react and while he is a couple of yards further downfield than he would have been had the turn worked, he nonetheless has the ball at his feet …

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