Yusuf Demir, Lionel Messi’s Successor from Austria

DBasia.news – The term ‘the next’ in comparison to legendary names such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and other top players is commonplace in the world of football. If it’s not ‘the next’ then it’s ‘incarnation’.

In essence, comparisons are always made whenever discussing legendary players with successors who are talented, quality youths, and have the same typical playing style. Tired of that term? Can be.

The fact is that not all players with ‘the next’ are successful in football careers, some of them are not strong enough with the responsibility of big name comparisons, say like Alen Halilovic or Marko Marin.

Even so, the public does not get tired of comparing talented youths with the term ‘the next’ because in that comparison there is hope, hope that the new generation can replace their predecessors.

After briefly appearing the next Lionel Messi from Croatia, Germany (and even from Indonesia), now the term comes from Austria, taking root in a 17-year-old player with the full name Yusuf Demir.

Born in Vienna, Austria on June 2nd, 2003, Yusuf Demir immediately started his football career with Vienna’s oldest club, First Vienna academy in 2010 and three years later at the age of 10 he joined Rapid Vienna academy.

He is 10 years old but Demir went straight into the U-13 and then U-16 squad. His career took off at a young age with the success of being the youngest player to win the U-19 Player of the Year award at the Mercedes-Benz Junior tournament in Germany in 2019.

At that time he was only 15 years old and Rapid finished as runner-up to Liverpool. A year later Demir won it again and this time Rapid became champion with a 4-0 win over RB Leipzig.

“He has tremendous potential. It’s great to see him play football,” said Steffen Hofmann, a Rapid Vienna legend and a product of the Bayern Munich academy who coached him on the Rapid Under-16 team.

“In every training session you can see from the first second how incredible he is. I have never seen a player like him at this age.”

Great performance at a young age at the club youth team level brought Demir to the Austrian U-15 and U-17 national team with a record: 19 goals in 22 matches.

According to FIFA’s rules, as long as he hasn’t defended the senior national team, Demir can still choose to defend the Austrian or Turkish senior national team, the countries that flow in his blood.

“In this case (the choice of the country that Demir chose) there is no reason to change it,” said Demir’s agent, Emre Ozturk, speaking to Spox.

At the age of 16 years 196 days Yusuf Demir became the youngest player of all time to make his debut at Rapid in December 2019. Demir entered as a substitute for Veli Kavlak, a talent who is also predicted to have a bright future but does not live up to expectations, because Kavlak now has no club.

The combination of injuries and the corona virus pandemic had hampered its development, but after football started again Demir became Dietmar Kuhbauer’s mainstay at Rapid. At 17 years of age that status is truly special.

Seeing his game with Emre Ozturk’s left-handedness, he did not hesitate to compare him with one name: Lionel Messi. And the player also admires him, no wonder his nickname is Lionel Messi from Austria.

“Yussi is very creative, dribbles and has a great left foot. His technique and vision are extraordinary. The way he plays he is very similar to Messi,” said Ozturk.

“Yussi is a big fan of Messi,” added Ozturk. “He likes everything Messi has to do. He is used to playing in his shirt. But now he has his own: Demir, number 48.”

Left-footed, creative midfielder who can play in many positions in offensive positions with the ability to execute set pieces. This sparked his comparisons with Messi, especially after Demir admired the Barcelona superstar.

Demir’s contract will expire in June 2022 and currently Europe’s top clubs are continuing to monitor his progress, one of which is Messi’s club Barcelona.