While Liverpool have not made any big moves so far this summer, fans will at least be happy to have Solanke on board, after all, he won the Golden Ball at the recently concluded U20 World Cup tournament. Solanke scored four goals in the tournament, the second most in the tournament, and with his help, the Three Lions won the U20 World Cup trophy, the first world tournament trophy since the 1966 World Cup, which is not easy.
Truth be told though, looking at the trajectory of previous U20 World Cup Golden Ball winners, the tournament's Golden Ball is not a guarantee of success. Recently Jerk took a look at the trajectory of some recent U20 World Cup Golden Ball winners for Cubegoal readers.
2001: Saviola
The striker scored 11 goals in the 2001 U21, six of which came in the knockout stages. He moved from River Plate to Barcelona after winning the U20 World Cup Ballon d'Or and...
Playing for Barcelona's first season, Saviola scored 17 goals, his excellent performance is also to let more fans recognize their own power. However, with the passage of time, Saviola's performance began to decline year by year. After Rijkaard coached Barcelona, Saviola gradually faded out of the main lineup, and was bounced around Monaco and Sevilla on loan. Eventually, Saviola was not able to stay in the Camp Nou, but signed a new contract with Real Madrid, and it seems that he joined Real Madrid to take revenge on Barcelona, but in the Bernabeu, Saviola did not find his own form.
While Saviola was said to have had a brief period of resurgence at Benfica, he still wasn't able to reach the heights he once did. He eventually bounced back to River Plate and hung up his boots to retire in 2016.
2003: Ismail Matar
Known as the "Gulf Maradona", Ismail Matar has made 114 appearances for the UAE and is the captain of the national team. He is also one of the most successful soccer players in the Gulf. However, he has not had the opportunity to play in a major European league, and outside of the UAE, Ismail Matar can hardly be considered a famous player.
Ismail Matar's U20 World Cup win may have been a bit of luck, after all, hosts UAE didn't make it to the quarterfinals that year and Ismail Matar scored just one goal as a striker.
2005: Messi
The thunderous name of Messi really doesn't need much introduction, he is now the contemporary king of the ball. 17 years old Messi has become the core of the Argentine national youth team, and in the U20 World Cup game scored 6 goals, in helping Argentina to win the tournament title at the same time, he is also chopped off the Golden Ball Award and the Golden Boot Award himself.
It was from that year that Messi established himself in the Barcelona first team, scoring six goals in 17 La Liga matches.
2007: Aguero
Aguero is actually in a similar situation as Messi, who also scored six goals in the 2007 U20 World Cup to help his team win the tournament and collect the Ballon d'Or and Golden Boot for himself.
While playing for Atletico Madrid, Aguero has fully demonstrated his ability, and then he was transferred to Manchester City for 38 million pounds. And now Aguero, although not reached the height of Messi, or become a key figure in the attack of Manchester City.
2009: Dominique Adjia
In the 2009 U20 World Cup, Dominic Aditya scored 8 goals in 7 matches and helped Ghana to win the trophy for the first time in the tournament. Dominic Aditya also became a member of Milan with his outstanding performance in the tournament.
But after joining Milan, Dominic Aditya couldn't even get a chance to play, and after bouncing around Kazakhstan, Dominic Aditya is now only playing in the Thai league, and his career can only be described as a "failure".
2011: Enrique Almeida
In the 2011 U20 World Cup, Enrique Almeida beat Alexandre Lacazette to lift the tournament's Golden Ball trophy. He was joined by Oscar, who scored a hat-trick in the final, for the U20 World Cup Golden Ball that year.
Both Oscar, and Lacazette, were hugely successful in their later career paths, but it didn't go so well for Henrique Almeida, who was never selected for Brazil's adult national team. And nowadays, he's struggling to start in the Barclays Premier League, having been loaned out by Botafogo to Coritiba.
2013: Pogba
Midfielder Paul Pogba is the most expensive player at the moment and he is currently in a moderate situation at Manchester United. After leaving Old Trafford and joining Juventus for free, the French midfielder showed his strength and became Juventus' uncontested starter, and after three years, United paid the highest transfer fee ever in order to get Pogba back in the red kit.
2015: Adama Trombley
At the 2015 U20 World Cup, Adama Traore scored four goals and added three assists, ultimately helping Mali to a third place finish at the U20 World Cup after 16 years.
In 2014, Adama Traore joined Lille, and a year later, he became a member of Monaco for 14 million euros. Although Adama Traore hasn't been able to show his talent in Monaco's first team yet, his future is still worth looking forward to in Monaco, where there are a lot of demon stars.
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