Another week arrives with a brand new episode of the 5 Star Potential podcast dropping in your feeds, and our Adventures in Wonderkid-land segment takes us to the second tier of German football to look at a young Turkish player who has started the new season like a house on fire; as a Football Manager enthusiast, where else would you rather be? That player is 17-year-old sensation Can Uzun who currently (and for now) plies his trade at FC Nürnberg in the Zweite Bundesliga, and who at the time of writing is enjoying a breakout season with 6 goals and 2 assists in just 4 games (263 minutes) for the senior side.
Born in 2005 in Germany but currently a part of the Turkish U18 side, Uzun is showing himself to be a shrewd technican either up front or in the number 10 role with excellent technique and vision as well as having powerful movement, agility and decision-making well beyond his 17 years on this planet. While his fellow compatriot wonderkid and AMC Arda Güler has been making all the headlines this year both in FM23 and in real-life following a move to La Liga giants Real Madrid, Uzun is very much making a case to be the next big Turkish prodigy scoring 3 league goals either side of a hat-trick in the DFB Pokal. One could argue that the level of football is obviously lower than Güler’s breakthrough at Fenerbahce, however there is little doubt that Uzun is already proving himself too good for this level even at 17-years-old, which has catapulted him into the limelight across the European football scouting network.
Not only are his stats adding up - Uzun very much passes the eye test as well; socks pulled down, tiny shin-pads and as Joe mentioned on the pod “the boy loves a ball roll” - it’s easy to see why Nürnberg fans have a new hero emerging and why Turkish football fans are drooling at the prospect of a Güler - Uzun - Kökçü midfield line-up after what has been a couple of disappointing years for their international side recently.
Unfortunately for us, it appears that Uzun’s undoubted quality and potential has been slightly missed or overlooked by the Sports Interactive research team in the build-up to FM23, as his profile does not truly reflect the levels he is showing in real-life currently. That said - at 16 his decent physical attributes, excellent determination and quite promising technical attributes would make him a bargain youth signing for any mid to lower level club across Europe, not to mention his contract ends in 2024 which makes him highly attainable for a relatively low fee. While it’s certain he will be upgraded by the time FM24 hits our screens, Uzun is still one to be looked at in this year’s game and if you have the managerial prowess to develop and elevate him in-game as needed, you may have a real asset on your hands who could turn out to be a surprise package for your club or at worst be flipped for profit a few seasons in; go on, you know it makes sense 👌.
Thanks for reading - let us know if you have had any interesting experiences with the lad and if you would like us to review any other potential wonderkids as part of our new “Adventures in Wonderkid-land” segment - drop us a line in the comments below or @5StarPod on Twitter 👌.
