Wunderkids

It is a blank cheque to build the most exciting young starting XI in world football.

Steve Crossman will be joined by experts to discuss the latest addition to the team, with one new player revealed each week.

Each player must be young and have the potential to become the next superstars in their position.

We are not going for the obvious names, but we are looking at the players who are on the verge of making the breakthrough into the big time.

In this week's episode, we pick a player that the fans of Ajax are thrilled with and one that Manchester City are rumored to be interested in - defender Jurrien Timber. If you want to look at those that have made our XI so far, just scroll to the bottom of this page.

The talent who is a football twin

In the Dutch Eredivisie, Timber has made nearly 50 appearances and has caught the eye in the European competition.

He and his twin brother, Quinten, ran many youth teams at the famous football factory.

At the age of four, the twins were put on the club's red and white uniforms and immediately started playing against six year olds - the lowest age group in which there were games for them.

It helped their development. While Matthijs de Ligt was sold for more than three million dollars, Jurrien was hyping to the point where some believe he could prove to be a better player.

Many of the club's young stars end up moving on, despite Jurrien having slept under an Ajax duvet as a child.

Unsurprisingly, big clubs are linked with him - including Manchester United - but he has shown an interest in a move to Manchester City should he leave his boyhood club.

What does the expert say?

Jurrien Timber
Timber made his full Ajax debut in March of 2020

The author of Glorious Reinvention is a person who focuses on the topic of Ajax in the 21st Century.

Frank and Ronald, the famous De Boer twins, were compared to the twin brothers because of their time at Ajax.

He had a bit more in Jurrien when he took a different route. He is a ball-playing footballer who is synonymous with the club.

The project with Jurrien was chosen because of the talent that both of them had. He is the most skilled of the two. They say that Jurrien was always a little bit more composed and driven, if you look at articles from the past.

Great players who watch these two say that Jurrien will end up at a top club. Ronald de Boer said last month that Manchester City will make a move for him and that he will be their long-term centre-half.

He was training with the first team at 17 when he made his national debut. He has the talent to have a good career for a long time.

It's too early to say if he can beat De Ligt. We need to see how far the team can go before we make a decision. The De Ligt team made it to the semi-finals in style. We can judge if this is the best defensive partnership, if not in the history of Ajax, by the time we are done.

He is a little small for a defender, so a bit more muscle and physical will do Timber no harm at all. I think that will happen. It's easy to forget that this is his first full season. We can give him time to grow as a footballer before making a judgement on him. I hope he becomes great.

We talk a lot about these kids, but I think Timber is the most talented of them all. I believe he can achieve more than Ryan Gravenberch.

What does the fan say?

Juan Kaluf is a fan of the team and helped found a channel on the internet.

One of the stars is Timber. This might be the best defensive duo we have ever had, because he is starting with Martinez.

He is strong, fearless and composed when he has the ball, and he might be a future player.

I would say that he is similar to a player.

He has a lot of qualities that he possesses at a very young age.

BBC Wunderkids team