Alessandro Del Piero. Paul Pogba. Paulo Dybala. Carlos Tevez. Michel Platini. Roberto Baggio.
What do these players all have in common? They all enchanted Juventus supporters with their nifty footwork,
dynamic movement, heroic big-game contributions, scintillating goals, and they all wore the No. 10 for Juve. There isn’t a single number that carries as much prestige and value as the 10 — be that for Juventus or in general footballing terms — and the latest player to wear the #10 for the Bianconeri is none other than Kenan Yıldız.
Born in Regensburg, Germany, Yıldız spent a decade at Bayern Munich’s academy before making the move to Juventus in July 2022. He broke into the first team at the start of the 2023/24 season, scoring four goals and two assists in 32 appearances before heading off to Germany to take part in the Euros and then earning the No. 10 shirt at Juve. He did even better in 2024/25, racking up 12 goals and nine assists in 52 appearances across all competitions and emerging as one of the team’s bright spots.
Today, Yıldız leads Juventus for assists (3), Expected Assists (2.03), goal contributions (5), shots per game (2.6), shots on target per game (1.0), big chances created (5), and key passes per game (2.4) in Serie A. Only Francisco Conceição (2.0) is completing more successful dribbles per game than him (1.5), whilst only Dušan Vlahović (3) has scored more goals than him (2).
At 20 years of age, Yıldız has already staked his claim as a game-changer for club and country, becoming Juventus’ youngest foreign goalscorer in Serie A as well as their youngest goalscorer in the UEFA Champions League and the youngest player to wear the captain’s armband for Juve. He is undoubtedly one of the best young players in Europe, but with Luciano Spalletti at the helm, he might just have found the perfect manager to elevate him to the next level.
As one of, if not the franchise player of this Juventus team, Yıldız has already enjoyed a number of benefits from cushy sponsorship deals, a lucrative salary, and the unrelenting love of the Juve fanbase. However, one thing he hasn’t quite managed to enjoy is managerial stability. Yıldız has gone from playing under Max Allegri to Thiago Motta to Igor Tudor to Spalletti, who took charge on Oct. 30 on a contract until the end of the season, with the option for an additional year.
This kind of volatility isn’t helpful for anyone, but especially a young player like Yıldız. He needs a steady foundation and a manager who’s going to be able to patiently iron out the kinks; he can’t afford to be going back to square one after a few months and focusing on an entirely different new tactical approach. Spalletti — who has overseen 75-plus matches in each of his last six club spells — is expected to stay put for a fairly long timeframe and help Juve’s players find a stable base.
Across his three decades in coaching, Spalletti has been able to unearth quite a few raw diamonds and polish them into world-renowned gems, such as Khvicha Kvaratshkelia. When Kvaratshkelia joined Spalletti’s Napoli in the summer of 2022, he was an unknown youngster who had only played in the Russian and Georgian league. Over the next 2.5 years, Kvaratshkelia established himself into one of the top wingers in world football, guiding Napoli to a long-awaited Scudetto before making the move to Paris Saint-Germain in January, where he led them to a first-ever UEFA Champions League.
“Any coach who leads Napoli to their first Scudetto since Diego Maradona deserves a lot of credit,” stated Leonardo Bertozzi, who commentates Serie A matches for ESPN Brasil. “Of course, Spalletti’s recent experience in charge of the Italy national team was below expectations, but he’s still a coach who does a great job of working with big names as well as rising young prospects. Juventus have a lot of interesting youngsters like Kenan Yıldız, who is one of the most talented players in European football, and I think Spalletti can help him fulfill this potential.”
Similarly to Kvaratshkelia in the summer of 2022, Yıldız is a promising U-21 left winger who has the penchant for the extraordinary. In fact, even Spalletti himself has noted the similarities, stating recently, “I’m lucky because I’ve had some great player. Kvara had those characteristics. One who had less of a spotlight, but still had incredible talent was Toto Di Natale. Yıldız is one of those who will be on everyone’s Instagram feeds at the end of the season.”
Whether it’s slicing and dicing through a sea of opponents with his breathless step-overs and changes of direction, or firing a powerful shot from distance, or tracking back and putting in a strong tackle, Yıldız has just about every single trick in the locker. But what he doesn’t have yet is consistency.
After a sensational start to the campaign that saw him grab a brace of assists vs. Parma and a goal and assist vs. Inter and Borussia Dortmund, Yıldız was kept under wraps in his next seven appearances. He returned to the score sheet with a penalty vs. Udinese, only to be nullified in back-to-back draws vs. Sporting and Torino, and he’ll be looking to score his first non-penalty goal since September 16 in Juve’s upcoming match vs. Fiorentina.
It’s unclear if this lack of consistency comes from the complacency of knowing that his starting spot is set in stone, or simply from the fatigue of playing multiple games per week. Whilst Yıldız is undoubtedly one of Juve’s most indispensable figures, there’s no denying that he has plenty of room for improvement. Above all, he doesn’t just need to become more of a consistent player, but a more intelligent player.
Far too often, Yıldız has gone for the flashy individual highlight rather than the more conservative option. He’ll drive into a rabbit hole and find himself dispossessed in the final third, or he’ll try to force a long ball and allow the opposing defender to easily win the aerial duel and come away with possession, or he’ll launch a cross into the palms or the opposing goalkeeper rather than attempting a one-two or a short pass.
Yıldız leads all Juventus players with 15.0 possessions lost per game, well ahead of second-placed Conceição. This is usually the case for a team’s most dynamic player, but it’s still something that could and should be improved upon. Such is Yıldız’s ability to score a mind-boggling goal that he’ll often attempt a low-percentage shot on the off chance that it goes in. We saw this in Juve’s recent defeat vs. Real Madrid where, rather than teeing up Vlahović with a low cross into the box, he unsuccessfully attempted to bend a shot around Thibaut Courtois, costing his team a golden opportunity in the process.
All things considered, Kenan Yıldız is undoubtedly one of the best young players in world football and one of the most important figures for both his club and country, and Juve should be doing everything they can to renew his contract past its current expiry date. However, he also isn’t the finished article yet.
If Yıldız wants to get on the same level as the likes of Vinícius Júnior, Raphinha, and Luis Díaz, then he needs to start ironing out the kinks and becoming a more efficient and consistent player. There’s a fine line between taking the game by the scruff of its neck and making selfish, reckless decisions at the expense of the team’s overall play, and right now, he needs to work on finding that balance.
Luciano Spalletti has already taken Khvicha Kvaratshkelia from a promising young talent to a world-class, all-conquering winger, but now, can he do the same with Kenan Yıldız?
