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Sporting Cristal has been working to improve its player recruitment and preparation processes. This work has allowed them to develop talented young players, such as Joao Grimaldo, a 20-year-old forward who, after his performances with the club in the Liga 1 Betsson and the Copa Libertadores, earned a call-up to the Peruvian National Team for the initial matches of the Qualifiers. Undoubtedly, more than one spotlight -from abroad- is on the rimense forward.
And this Wednesday, the list of the 100 players born since 2002 with the projection of playing in one of the top five leagues in the world was published, where the Celeste forward was included. This ranking, developed by the Football Observatory of the International Center for Sports Studies (CIES) located in Switzerland, highlighted Grimaldo among the young players with the greatest chances of being recruited by top clubs, considering him as a "versatile target".
The young rimense has an experience score of 47.8 and a market value of 2.9 million euros. Likewise, the extension of his contract until 2025 is included in the list. With this data, the Observatory provides important information to scouts that "allows them to classify players taking into account both their playing time and the sporting level of the matches played. This facilitates the identification of talents whose signing offers greater guarantees of success".
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Grimaldo in the national team
Last Friday, Juan Reynoso announced the call-up of local players to train at Videna this week, and after that process, the selected players for the matches against Paraguay and Brazil in the Qualifiers will be chosen. In that sense, the national coach gave enough reasons to include Joao Grimaldo in this list and also in the final squad for September.
"Joao Grimaldo has been considered for his present and the level he showed, both in the Copa Libertadores and the Sudamericana (with Sporting Cristal), which was good," said the coach of the Peruvian team in a press conference. Along with the Celeste forward, Piero Quispe was also included in this list. "Grimaldo and Piero have been with the Peruvian U23 National Team, but they will surely stay until the end of the match(es)," he said.
But what are the statistics of the rimense player? From his position as a winger, Grimaldo scored five goals in 25 matches, which averages 0.2 goals per game. His ability to score from inside the box is impressive, as he has scored five of his 26 goals from that area. He also has four assists and created five great goal-scoring opportunities. These numbers make him stand out as the best U20 player in South America.
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