Under-21 Players to Watch — No.5: Endrick, the teenage striker who found himself at Lyon — and arrives at Brazil's World Cup ready
Endrick is 19 years old, scored eight goals and added eight assists on loan at Lyon, and helped them qualify for the Champions League. Real Madrid paid €72m for him. Brazil have been waiting for him to arrive. In 2026, he has.
The narrative around Endrick for the past eighteen months has been about potential not yet realised. The huge move from Palmeiras to Real Madrid in 2024. The adjustment period at a club where even the bench players are world-class. The questions about whether he was developing fast enough, whether the move had come too soon, whether the weight of expectation was slowing the very development it was supposed to accelerate.
The loan to Lyon changed everything. Eight goals and eight assists in 21 appearances for the French club helped repair a reputation that had started to wobble, contributing heavily to Lyon's qualification for the Champions League as well as their somewhat unexpected fourth-place finish in Ligue 1. That is not a player finding his feet. That is a player who found his feet and ran with them.
What he brings to Brazil
Endrick's specific quality is the kind that changes matches from positions of difficulty. He is capable of changing a match at any moment — quick over short distances, able to evade challenges, wriggle away from defenders and create space for a shot with minimal backlift, with a trademark powerful left-footed finish. For Brazil, who have lost Rodrygo and Estêvão to injury, his ability to produce that individual moment is not just desirable — it is necessary.
He will not start every match. Carlo Ancelotti has Vinícius and Raphinha ahead of him in the hierarchy. But tournament football creates moments where the manager needs something different from the bench, where the match requires a player with the nerve and quality to change it in the final twenty minutes. Endrick is that player. The Lyon loan proved it. Brazil need it.
The pressure and what he does with it
He is 19 years old carrying the weight of Brazil's World Cup expectations in the year that Rodrygo, Estêvão, and Militão are all injured. That is not a light burden. But the players who thrive under that weight tend to be the ones who were always going to be extraordinary — and everything about Endrick's trajectory suggests he belongs in that category.
Age: 19 | Club: Real Madrid (loan: Lyon) | Nation: Brazil This season: 8 goals, 8 assists in 21 appearances — helped Lyon into Champions League
Viva's Verdict
"The Lyon loan fixed what needed fixing. Eight goals, eight assists, a team in the Champions League because of him. Endrick arrives at his first World Cup not as a prospect but as a player who has already delivered at the top level. Brazil have lost Rodrygo and Estêvão. They still have him. That matters more than the seedings suggest."
Next in the countdown
No.4 tomorrow — the Real Madrid playmaker whose vision and nerve make him Turkey's entire creative system — and one of the most naturally gifted players nobody talks about enough. Back to VivaSportsHQ →
