Seven Breakout Stars to Watch in 2026–27 Premier League Season
While the Premier League is already full of massive stars, there is an abundance of players looking to make the jump to the next level as well.
Last year brought the emergence of players like Igor Thiago, Junior Kroupi and Rayan, and the queue behind them is growing with each passing day as players up and down the league seek to turn themselves into household names over the next 12 months.
Here are seven players worth keeping a particularly close eye on.
Brian Madjo (Aston Villa)
Let’s start with an obvious one. The world is talking about the 17-year-old skyscraper that is Aston Villa striker Brian Madjo after his goalscoring performance in the Super Cup defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.
Villa paid around $14 million (£10 million) to sign Madjo in January and happily entered into a lengthy legal battle to prove his eligibility to move from France to England at his tender age. The Villans ultimately won and wasted little time letting the world see what Madjo is all about.
A 6'4" behemoth with surprising agility, Madjo seems tailor-made for the English game. He can expect plenty of appearances this season, particularly amid uncertainty over Ollie Watkins’s Villa future, and could easily establish himself as Harry Kane’s deputy in the England squad if the stars align.
Johan Manzambi (Aston Villa)
Can you be a breakout star with a price tag of around $80 million? Either way, Johan Manzambi will hope to make the jump from exciting youngster to household name after his own move to Villa Park.
Manzambi, 20, is a typical modern playmaker who combines size, athleticism and technical quality. He flirted with a breakout season last year with Freiburg, bagging seven goals and nine assists, before a stellar World Cup with Switzerland saw him earn an enormous switch to the Premier League.
He’ll face immense pressure to live up to that price tag, but there are plenty of reasons to believe Manzambi can come good on his potential as early as this season. Given the current uncertainty at Villa, they really need him to.
Bazoumana Touré (Newcastle United)
Newcastle United had wanted Manzambi but have made do with another Bundesliga bright spark, heading to St James’ Park for around $57 million.
The 20-year-old had been suggested as a potential replacement for Mohamed Salah at Liverpool, but needs a real breakout season before being deserving of that sort of role. The lightning-fast winger sowed the seeds last season with Hoffenheim, showcasing a devious eye for an assist as he racked up 12 in 30 games.
Life isn’t particularly good at Newcastle this summer, with the departure of big names and manager Eddie Howe ushering in a new era. Touré will hope to be the focal point of this next installment of the Magpies.
Mamadou Sangaré (Brentford)
If Brentford sign a player, the chances are he’s going to be good. The Bees’ data-driven recruitment landed them right at the door of Lens to sign 24-year-old Malian midfielder Mamadou Sangaré this summer.
Lens hardly boast a global profile and it was easy to miss the fact they won the Coupe de France and finished second in Ligue 1 last season. That success was driven by a number of factors, but one of the most important was the decision to sign Sangaré from Rapid Wien 12 months ago.
Sangaré has earned comparisons to N’Golo Kanté for his all-action, box-to-box approach to controlling the midfield, and it would come as no surprise to see the Champions League heavyweights trying to throw nine-figure sums his way next summer.
Hayden Hackney (Everton)
Clubs have been increasingly willing to shop in England’s second tier in recent years. Crystal Palace led the way by providing a platform for Eberechi Eze, Michael Olise and Adam Wharton, and Everton will hope midfielder Hayden Hackney follows a similar trajectory.
Having just turned 24 this summer, Hackney would have been forgiven for thinking a big move to the Premier League was never coming, but he earned his transfer through a series of impressive seasons with Middlesbrough, in which his qualities as a ball-playing midfielder were made abundantly clear.
Comparisons to Arsenal’s Declan Rice are perhaps a little premature, but Wharton and Manchester City’s Elliot Anderson are two players built in the same mold as Hackney. He is another who could easily be on the move again in 12 months if everything goes to plan.
Ousmane Diomande (Nottingham Forest)
Chances are you have probably heard of Ousmane Diomande from years of transfer links to every big team on the planet. Those who previously passed up on the 22-year-old may live to regret that decision.
It was Nottingham Forest who managed to lure Diomande away from Sporting CP, landing the prototypical modern center back. He uses his 6'3" to assert dominance over attackers but it just as happy in a foot race or playing his way out of trouble—and it has been that way ever since he joined Sporting in January 2023.
With Murillo and Nikola Milenković around him, Forest have every reason to believe they may have built one of the Premier League’s best defensive units.
Luka Vuskovic (Brighton)
Sticking with center backs, Luka Vušković is now looking to bring his dazzling form with Hamburg over to the Premier League with Brighton & Hove Albion.
Brighton gleefully took the chance to lure the 19-year-old away from Tottenham Hotspur after selling Jan Paul van Hecke, landing a player widely accepted to be perhaps the premier young center back in Europe.
Few teams know how to develop players quite like Brighton, who will immediately lean on Vušković’s impressive blend of defending, passing and scoring goals—he scored six last season on loan in the Bundesliga—in their ongoing journey to disrupt the Premier League’s elite. This is the sort of signing that can easily help that quest.
