{"id":445925,"date":"2025-09-23T13:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T13:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/445925\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T13:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T13:37:11","slug":"leeds-uniteds-7-wonderkids-from-fifa-16-where-are-they-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/445925\/","title":{"rendered":"Leeds United’s 7 wonderkids from FIFA 16: Where are they now?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leeds United<\/a> were still firmly in their Championship wilderness era when FIFA 16 was released back in September 2015. But there were some decent youngsters emerging and glimmers of hope.<\/p>\n

With Massimo Cellino in the boardroom and a rotating cast of managers, Leeds were still consistently finishing in the bottom half of the second tier back then, but what became of their most promising academy graduates?<\/p>\n

Using the extensive database from SoFIFA<\/a>, we\u2019ve taken a look at their seven wonderkids from FIFA 16 and checked in on where they are now.<\/p>\n

Lewis Cook<\/strong><\/p>\n

The real bright hope of Leeds United\u2019s academy in the miserable mid-2010s, it was obvious that they\u2019d struggle to hold onto a player of Cook\u2019s potential and ability as long as they languished in Championship midtable mediocrity.<\/p>\n

The York-born midfielder made 85 appearances for his boyhood club, having burst into the team after catching the eye in England\u2019s Under-17 UEFA European Under-17 Championship in 2017 \u2013 captain of a team that featured future England internationals like Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Dominic Solanke and Fikayo Tomori.<\/p>\n

After being named Leeds\u2019 Young Player of the Year in both of his seasons in the first team, Cook moved to Bournemouth for a reported fee of \u00a36million.<\/p>\n

A couple of years later, he made his bow for Gareth Southgate\u2019s Three Lions and was named in the standby squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, hard luck with injuries \u2013 two ruptured ACLs \u2013 stopped him from ever getting a second senior international cap, but he\u2019s bounced back and remains a dependable Premier League footballer.<\/p>\n

He was outstanding as Andoni Iraola\u2019s Cherries punched above their weight to finish 9th last season.<\/p>\n

Sam Byram<\/strong><\/p>\n

There was a real hope that Leeds\u2019 bright young crop would one day lead them back to the Premier League.<\/p>\n

The reality worked out quite differently, as they departed one by one, but things have worked out nicely full circle for Byram.<\/p>\n

He played in the Premier League for both West Ham and Norwich, but injuries stopped him ever really kicking on and nailing down a place.<\/p>\n

Byram contributed more than anyone could have anticipated since his return to Elland Road two years ago, doing more than enough to earn a contract extension to be a squad option under Daniel Farke in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time, I was desperate to make my Premier League debut and that was the reason I went,\u201d he told The Athletic<\/a> at the end of last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw Leeds get promoted a few years later, it hurt that I wasn\u2019t part of that. So to come back, unexpectedly and throughout the last two years we\u2019ve had, it\u2019s been amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Mowatt<\/strong><\/p>\n

The midfielder played over a hundred times for Leeds, but he was reduced to a fringe role under Garry Monk and was sold to Yorkshire rivals Barnsley midway through the 2016-17 campaign.<\/p>\n

After developing his game out on loan at Oxford United, Mowatt became a fan favourite at Oakwell.<\/p>\n

He made the EFL Team of the Season after firing the Tykes to promotion from League One in 2018-19 and was subsequently named their Player of the Season as they consolidated their place back in the Championship.<\/p>\n

Now 30, we\u2019re starting to doubt Mowatt will ever make it up to the Premier League. But he remains a more than decent Championship-level player as a regular starter for West Brom.<\/p>\n

Charlie Taylor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rounding off the homegrown quartet of players that Leeds advertised their 2015-16 campaign on \u2013 the \u201cReal History. Real Future. Real Choice.\u201d advert<\/a> is a fun watch 10 years on \u2013 Taylor was the last to leave.<\/p>\n

The left-back featured prominently under Monk, when Leeds made great strides and narrowly missed out on the play-offs, before jumping ship to Burnley alongside goalscoring talisman Chris Wood.<\/p>\n

The two of them helped Sean Dyche\u2019s Clarets finish seventh in their debut season at Turf Moor. Taylor spent seven seasons with Burnley, playing well over 150 times in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

He joined Southampton last summer but barely featured in their feeble survival campaign, and is currently out on loan at Championship side West Brom.<\/p>\n

Kalvin Phillips<\/strong><\/p>\n

A little younger than Cook, Byram, Mowatt and Taylor, Phillips broke through a bit later.<\/p>\n

He featured alongside Taylor in the memorable 2016-17 season, but he was a fairly ordinary Championship midfielder before Marcelo Bielsa\u2019s transformational impact in 2018.<\/p>\n

Phillips had played almost a hundred games before Bielsa\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n

At that point, you\u2019d have said it was far more likely he\u2019d have a respectable but unspectacular Football League career \u2013 something akin to Mowatt\u2019s \u2013 than go on to start a major international final, voted England\u2019s Player of the Year, and signed by Pep Guardiola\u2019s all-conquering Manchester City.<\/p>\n

The move to City hasn\u2019t worked out, and neither have loan moves to West Ham and Ipswich, but reports suggest he\u2019ll be reintegrated into Guardiola\u2019s squad after a summer move failed to materialise.<\/p>\n

Lewie Coyle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leeds sent Coyle on three successive loans to Fleetwood Town before a permanent switch was finally sealed in January 2020.<\/p>\n

Strangely enough, after over 100 matches as a loanee, Coyle only lasted half a season at Highbury before moving on to Hull City.<\/p>\n

The versatile defender is a proper modern-day stalwart for the Tigers, the club captain into his sixth season there.<\/p>\n

Charlie Horton<\/strong><\/p>\n

A lesser-known former Leeds youngster, Horton was once highly rated, but he never made it beyond the youth ranks.<\/p>\n

The goalkeeper quietly departed for D.C. United in 2016, but he failed to make a first-team appearance for the MLS outfit and his career ultimately amounted to a handful of games out on loan at lower-league side Richmond Kickers.<\/p>\n

After leaving the professional game in his early twenties, Horton went into investment banking and has worked for Morgan Stanley.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Comparing Daniel Farke\u2019s record after 100 Leeds United matches with Marcelo Bielsa\u2019s<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name Leeds United\u2019s 15 most expensive signings?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leeds United were still firmly in their Championship wilderness era when FIFA 16 was released back in September…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,1512,4884,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-445925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-fifa","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-leeds","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115253886656379262","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}