The Young Midfielders EA FC 26 Still Underrates

The engine room is where scouts earn their money. Not the goalscorers everyone can already see, but the midfielders who make a team function — the ones who win the ball, set the tempo and arrive late in the box. Six of them, spread across Europe, are having breakout 2025-26 seasons while the mainstream lists — and, tellingly, the video-game ratings — haven't caught up. We are bookending this one with two genuine deep cuts: a surprise to open, and the youngest name of all to close. Prefer a ranked list? See our best young centre-backs and Germany's best young footballers. Numbers first.

The Radar, by the Numbers

UEFA named Smit the 2025-26 Conference League Revelation of the Season, and the numbers behind it are startling for a 20-year-old: five assists in ten European games as AZ reached the quarter-finals, plus three goals and three assists in the Eredivisie. He had already been Player of the Tournament and joint-top scorer as the Netherlands won the 2025 Under-19 Euros. A dribbling, line-breaking creator from AZ's famous academy, he is exactly the kind of player who is one big season away from no longer being a secret — Spain is already reportedly on the phone.

Scout Gamer Read — EA FC 26: 72 (DRI 77, PAS 71) — modest for a continental award-winner. Real-level: a U19 Euro Player of the Tournament and senior Netherlands international at 20. Tier: Elite-in-Waiting.

In January 2026, Bouaddi became the youngest player ever to make fifty Ligue 1 appearances for Lille — a record previously held by a certain Eden Hazard. That is the kind of sentence that should stop a scout cold. He is a deep-lying anchor who logged over 2,300 Ligue 1 minutes at seventeen and eighteen, dictating tempo with the calm of a player a decade older, and Lille tied him down to 2029 because the queue for his signature is only getting longer. Eligible for both France and Morocco, he has already captained France's Under-21s. The goals column reads zero, and that is entirely the point: his job is to make sure the other ten never have to worry about the ball.

Scout Gamer Read — EA FC 26: 75 (PAS 72, DEF 67, DRI 75) — a fair floor, but the 67 defending badly undersells a genuine screen. Real-level: a Ligue 1 metronome breaking Hazard's records at 18. Tier: Elite-in-Waiting.

While Europe's superclubs hoard academy midfielders on the bench, Inao Oulaï chose minutes — a five-year move to Trabzonspor in August 2025 — and repaid it immediately. Two goals and four assists in the Turkish top flight from a 20-year-old midfielder is serious two-way output, and it earned him a first senior call-up for the Ivory Coast and a place in their Africa Cup of Nations squad before the season was even out. He carries the ball through the lines and contributes at both ends; the Super Lig is a demanding, physical proving ground, and he has passed the test early.

Scout Gamer Read — EA FC 26: 64 (PAC 74, PHY 49) — the card is trailing the player badly, the low physical rating especially. Real-level: a two-way midfielder with an Ivory Coast senior call-up at 20. Tier: Raw Gem (trending up).

Here is a number that reframes everything: in 2025-26, Yirenkyi won possession more often than any other player in the Danish Superliga — and posted the division's best pass completion rate on top of it. Win the ball most, and keep it best: that is the modern midfield ideal in one line. A product of the famed Right to Dream Academy, he added two goals and six assists across 2,614 minutes for a Nordsjælland side that finished third, earned ten senior Ghana caps, and is now bound for the 2026 World Cup under Carlos Queiroz — with Porto reportedly already watching. At a market value around ten million euros, he may be the best-value name here.

Scout Gamer Read — EA FC 26: 67 — modest for a player who led an entire league in ball recoveries and passing accuracy. Real-level: a Ghana international and World Cup pick at 20. Tier: Elite-in-Waiting.

If you want to know how close to the surface these prospects are, start here: UEFA named Manzambi the 2025-26 Europa League Revelation of the Season, after he featured in all fifteen of Freiburg's games in the competition. A fast, dynamic box-to-box midfielder, the Swiss international became a Bundesliga regular this season — 16 goal involvements across all competitions, five league goals in over 2,000 minutes — the rare young midfielder who defends, drives and finishes. He is the least hidden of these six, which makes him the clearest signal of where the others are heading.

Scout Gamer Read — EA FC 26: 67 (PAC 75, DRI 72) — the game simply hasn't caught up to a continental award-winner. Real-level: a Freiburg regular and Switzerland international at 20. Tier: Elite-in-Waiting.

Born in 2008, Mokio is already the youngest non-Dutch player ever to appear for Ajax — and by 2025-26 he was not a novelty but a regular, with 28 Eredivisie appearances, three goals and two assists from central midfield and defence at just 18. Ajax handed him a five-year deal, and he made the kind of decision that tells you how highly he is rated: switching international allegiance to DR Congo, a country that will build around him. Positionally flexible, composed beyond his years, he is the closing deep cut precisely because he is the earliest — file the name now.

Scout Gamer Read — EA FC 26: 70 (DEF 69, DRI 72) — already a 70 at 18, and climbing. Real-level: the youngest foreign player in Ajax history, now a first-team regular. Tier: Raw Gem · One to Watch.

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