Zakaria Bakkali (One to watch)

[King Binny]

17 yrs old Belgian. Joined PSV academy in 2008 from Standard Liege. Signed a three-year contract to tie him to PSV until the summer of 2015 last yr at the age of 16. Plays on the right of the front trio in PSV's 4-3-3 formation.

PSV Eindhoven's 17-year-old wunderkind striker Zakaria Bakkali capped an unforgettable week with a brilliant hat-trick as the 1988 European Cup winners thumped NEC Nijmegen 5-0 in the Dutch championship on Saturday.

Three days after the Belgian scored his first goal for PSV on his senior debut for the club in a Champions League third round qualifying match, Bakkali repaid the faith of manager Phillip Cocu by finding the back of the net in the sixth, 47th and 82nd minutes.

Georginio Wijnaldum, who at 22 was the oldest PSV player on the field on Saturday, added the other two goals in the 61st and 75th minutes to leave the 21-times former Dutch champions on top of the standings with six points from two games.

"He (Bakkali) played a very strong game today. An outstanding performance for a youngster like him. I'm very happy about his development in the first team of PSV Eindhoven," Cocu told FOX Sports.

CL 3rd round qualifier 2nd leg vs Zulte Waregem


Yesterday's league hat trick vs NEC (all 3 assisted by Jurgen Locadia, who's 19)
1:0 Bakkali 6. min. Assist: Locadia
2:0 Bakkali 47. min. Assist: Locadia
3:0 Wijnaldum 61. min. Assist: Maher
4:0 Wijnaldum 75. min. Assist: Willems
5:0 Bakkali 82. min. Assist: Locadia

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JboOEL3l824
The average age of the starting XI against NEC was 19.9 yrs old. PSV turning to youth after the sales of the likes of Mertens, Lens, Pieters and Strootman.

 

[keniget]

What the fuck is going on with Belgium at the moment?

 

[gkmacca]

After the Great Chocolatier Epidemic of 1994 the birth rate shot up and sport became more important.

 

[Fabio]

What the fuck is going on with Belgium at the moment?

Did they lock up a lot of pedophiles in the 90s?

 

[the_khl]

What the fuck is going on with Belgium at the moment?

An incredible amount of talents over the past 5-10 years and loads with not so familiar Belgium names.

Bodes well for their future and probably their society in general as well.

A new Belgium could be on its way perhaps in slightly lesser scale in Georgia. Not only does their completely unknown clubs look decent in Europe (mainly with Georgians playing) their National Youth teams does exceptional well. A lot of fast, skilled and well balanced players in the Henrikh-mould stature-wise.

We raided Hungary a while back with no luck, perhaps we should try Georgia instead. Could be a few gems that have gone under the radar of the big clubs?

 

[Whirly]

I'm more intrigued by the sudden influx of European born, technically proficient Moroccans than we're seeing.

Labyad, Belhanda, Boussoufa, Arabi, Carcela-Gomez, Amrabat, Afellay, Chadli...

That is a group of very talented dribblers

Plus others like Rami, Benatia, Fellaini, Kaboul.