Krupskyi - in the top 10 of the CIES Football Observatory research group ranking
21-year-old right-back of FC "Kharkiv" and the Ukrainian national team Ilya Krupsky entered the top 10 best U-22 full-backs of the top 70 world championships in the current season according to the Swiss CIES Football Observatory research group.
The rating is led by 19-year-old right-back of Spanish "Barcelona" Javi Espart.
An interesting fact is that only two players from the top 5 European championships' teams made it to the top 10 of this rating: Emanuele Lulli from "Roma" and Zachary Atekame from "Lyon."
Top 10 U-22 full-backs of the top 70 world championships in the 2026/27 season according to the CIES Football Observatory research group (by CIES Index)
82.8 – Javi Espart ("Barcelona")
78.8 – Ali Mamar ("Anderlecht")
78.5 – Emanuele Lulli ("Roma")
78.4 – Zachary Atekame ("Lyon")
78.1 – Weiji Mao ("Dalian Yifang")
77.9 – Petar Sukachev ("Vojvodina")
77.6 – Ivan Fresneda ("Sporting")
77.3 – Samson Nwulu ("Partizan")
77.1 – Brian Barbosa ("Penarol")
76.6 – Ilya Krupsky (FC "Kharkiv")
