SHOCKING NEWS; Roma best goalkeeper Jack Butland just signed a four-year contract with Celtic.

It’s not controversial to suggest that, by and large, fans tend to flock toward the flashier players. No offense to the workmanlike midfielders earning their multi-million paycheck recycling possession or the hulking defenders who struggle all day to keep strikers out of the area before having dinner on their yachts, but the guys who put the ball in the back of the net tend to get most of the adoration, especially if they inspire awe along the way.

And for a team like Roma, who can’t afford to fill every position with world-beaters, when a truly special creative talent like Francesco Totti or Paulo Dybala comes along, simple fandom is soon replaced by hysteria, if not outright deification. When you can’t count on superstars walking through the doors every summer, you tend to worship the ones you have.

While we’re miles away from seeing Matías Soulé murals dotting the walls and alleyways of the Eternal City, his otherworldly touch, vision, and anticipation give you the feeling that something miraculous can happen anytime he touches the ball—let’s call it the Totti Tinglies.

Given all that, it’s unsurprising that he checks in at number one on our Top 10 U-23 countdown.

A child prodigy from the get-go, Soulé’s path to Rome began when he was just six years old, playing for Kimberley, a small Argentinian club. From there, Soulé upped his game, signing with Vélez Sarsfield’s youth setup in 2015. After five years with the Buenos Aires-based club, Soulé was snapped up by Juventus in the summer of 2020 for a cool €2.57 million.

Soulé would make his first team debut in the fall of 2022 before carving out a slightly larger role the following year, garnering 19 appearances in all competitions during the 2022-2023 season. With no path to consistent playing time available, Soulé spent last season on loan with Frosinone, bursting onto the stage with 11 goals and three assists in 36 appearances.

What Can He Do?

It won’t be long before this question is better phrased as “What can’t he do?” But in the here and now, Soulé is a dribbling and creating machine. While he isn’t the fastest player on the pitch, Soulé’s balance, agility, vision, and magnetic left foot allow him to cut through defenses like a hot knife through butter.

But those physical traits would be useless without Soulé’s uncanny sense of anticipation. Just like a chess player predicts their opponent’s gambits ahead of time, or even an NFL running back predicting how to beat the safety 10 yards up the field the minute he takes the handoff, Soulé can practically see into the future, sensing how the space ahead of him will expand and contract as he carries the ball up the pitch.