Ones to watch 2026: Morgan Rogers, Beau Greaves, Moses Itauma, Luke Littler, Keely Hodgkinson, Lottie Woad, Drake Maye, Davina Perrin and more | Football News

Which sports stars will shine in 2026?

We have compiled a list of the young talents who could light up the next 12 months, including stars of the oche and the cricket field, as well as the NFL quarterback everybody is talking about and England’s potential No 10 at the World Cup…

Luke Littler

By the time Littler turns 19 on January 21, he could – depending on how the remainder of the World Darts Championship plays out – be a back-to-back world champion and have extended his advantage at the top of the world rankings.

Even if he hasn’t retained the Sid Waddell Trophy, Littler will be the favourite to win the Premier League for a second time in three years and fully expected to continue his dominance of TV tournaments in 2026.

Littler just needs to win the Winmau World Masters and the European Championship to have won every possible ‘TV major’ on offer, while he will have opportunities to defend his UK Open, World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship Finals titles.

If ‘The Nuke’ maintains the standards we have seen from him over the first two full years of his career, the teenage sensation is going to take some stopping.

Scottie Scheffler

The age-old saying is you wait ages for a London bus and then two come along at once, which is something Scottie Scheffler will be hoping can be applied to Grand Slam winners after the US Open this summer.

Rory McIlroy became just the sixth male ever to complete the career Grand Slam after winning The Masters last April, but Scheffler won two of the next three majors – the PGA Championship and The Open – to lock in three legs of his own Grand Slam bid.

The missing major is the US Open, a tournament he has posted top-seven finishes in four of the last five years, with the final round of this year’s edition at Shinnecock Hills coinciding with his 30th birthday.

Scheffler has dominated the golfing world over the past few seasons, holding world No 1 for the longest run since Tiger Woods and breaking many records along the way, but the Grand Slam would cement him – if he’s not already – as one of the sport’s all-time greats.

Morgan Rogers

Morgan Rogers’ rapid acceleration to one of world football’s hottest young talents has lit up Aston Villa’s season and the Premier League as a whole. In 2026, could he do the same with the nation?

Now thriving under Unai Emery, the 23‑year‑old has effectively been handed the keys to Aston Villa’s attack – and Thomas Tuchel, along with England, are feeling the benefit.

Trusted heavily by both managers, Rogers’ match‑winning blend of elegance, power and flair has pushed him firmly into contention for a place in Tuchel’s England squad for this summer’s World Cup.

Competition is fierce, with Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, Eberechi Eze and Cole Palmer all vying for the same role, but Rogers’ form is becoming impossible to overlook.

His seven goals and three assists in the Premier League have helped propel Villa into the title race almost single‑handedly. He could have a similar influence on England’s pursuit of glory next summer.

Tuchel doesn’t shy away from tough calls – but starting Rogers in the USA, Canada and Mexico might be his simplest decision of all.

Beau Greaves

Greaves is just the second woman to earn a PDC Tour Card on merit and has been backed by several of the world’s best to ‘flourish’ when consistently playing at the top level.

She finished runner-up in the Development Tour rankings after winning three times last season, then showed her class by beating Luke Littler on her way to a runner-up finish at the World Youth Championship.

Greaves narrowly missed out on progressing from the group stage at the Grand Slam of Darts and came close to beating Daryl Gurney at the World Darts Championship, losing in a final-set decider, having dominated the PDC Women’s Series Order of Merit.

There’s little doubt that Greaves is the best women’s player on the planet, but it will be interesting to see whether that success transfers over to the PDC ProTour. It would be no surprise if it did.

Moses Itauma

Moses Itauma ends a frustrating five‑month wait for his 14th professional bout when he faces American Jermaine Franklin in Manchester on January 24.

The unbeaten 20‑year‑old – who has won six of his last nine fights inside three minutes and has never gone beyond round six – is expected to get the job done in his now‑trademark ruthless fashion.

Franklin has two losses on his record but has gone the distance in all 26 of his bouts. Yet if Itauma adds him to his list of victims, it appears only a matter of time before promoter Frank Warren lets his aspiring world champion off the leash.

Southpaw Itauma’s devastating first‑round knockout of compatriot Dillian Whyte in August put the heavyweight division on notice, and his options beyond Franklin are stacking up.

The WBA have ordered Itauma to face ‘regular’ champion Murat Gassiev, while the 20‑year‑old has also been mandated to fight Lawrence Okolie in an all-British WBC final eliminator.

Whichever route Itauma chooses, he has the boxing world at his feet – and the talent to back it up. His unrelenting pursuit of world titles will take some stopping in 2026.

Keely Hodgkinson

After finally winning a global gold in 2024 at the Olympics, Keely Hodgkinson’s 2025 season was set up to be special. She was even going to headline her own competition the ‘Keely Klassic’ in February. But injuries delayed the British star repeatedly.

Hodgkinson eventually debuted in August, intent on claiming another gold at the World Championships in Tokyo. However, she was knocked into second over the final 50m in the 800m and then pipped at the line by her training partner, Georgia Hunter-Bell, as he had to settle for bronze.

So, on to 2026. It’s about redemption for Hodgkinson.

With the European Championships in Birmingham in August, she will look to become the first woman to win gold at the event three times consecutively.

She is also eligible to compete at the World Athletics Ultimate Championships in September, a new competition that invites the best athletes to compete for the ‘ultimate honour’.

Oh, and if she stays injury free, we could see Hodgkinson go after the longest-standing individual world record in athletics. The 800m benchmark currently stands at 1:53.28 – over a second faster than she’s gone before.

Jacob Bethell

After a 2025 in which his lack of cricket was a hot topic of conversation, 22-year-old batting star Bethell looks poised to play an integral role for England across the formats this year.

That includes in Test matches after he scored a composed 40 in a frantic two-dayer at the MCG to help the team end a 15-year winless stretch in Ashes matches away from home.

England will also look for Bethell to help them earn a third T20 World Cup title in India and Sri Lanka in February and March, plus arrest their alarming slide in 50-over cricket that has left them scrambling to qualify directly for the next ODI World Cup in 2027.

Bethell has only notched one professional hundred so far – in an ODI against South Africa last summer – but don’t let that kid you, as this kid has immense talent.

Arvid Lindblad

In 2021, Arvid Lindblad vowed to newly-crowned F1 world champion Lando Norris that he would meet him on the grid in five years.

Fast-forward to 2026 and the Virginia Water-born racer has lived up to his promise, with Lindblad having joined Racing Bulls for the upcoming season.

With F1 set to be completely turned on its head by a new set of regulation changes as well as a new team entering the grid in Cadillac, it couldn’t be a more exciting time for another young Brit to be entering the sport.

Lindblad, like Norris before him, has been earmarked as one to watch by those in the know and is believed to have everything it takes to become a champion. Now the 18-year-old has the perfect chance to take the next stride in realising his ultimate dream.

Davina Perrin

With many batters in the England women team north of 30, there could be a chance for youngsters to be blooded this summer, either before or after the home T20 World Cup.

Teenager Perrin is perhaps at the head of the queue after slamming a 42-ball ton during Northern Superchargers’ run to the women’s Hundred title in 2025.

That knock, which featured 15 fours and fixes sixes and came a little over a week before her 19th birthday, made Perrin the first black British woman to hit a professional T20 century.

After graduating from ACE, an initiative launched in response to a decline in the number of black British professional players, Perrin’s now looks destined to progress to the international arena.

Drake Maye

Unearthing a long-term answer at quarterback can define seasons, coaching tenures and entire eras for an NFL franchise. Finding success at the most important position in sport is tough enough, let alone when it comes to replacing Tom Brady.

Granted, there is no like-for-like solution to losing a seven-time Super Bowl champion or the greatest player in football history. But the New England Patriots believe they have found the man to steer them back to perennial contention.

Drake Maye, under the tutelage of first-year Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, just led the Patriots back to the playoffs and to their first AFC East division title since 2019 behind Brady and Bill Belichick.

He hasn’t merely teased signs of a bright future, but he has propelled New England ahead of schedule in their rebuild as one of football’s most dominant young quarterbacks.

The Patriots drafted Maye with the third overall pick out of North Carolina in 2024. Year one would prove turbulent under one-and-done head coach Jerod Mayo as Maye adapted to life in the NFL. Year two has been an eruption of deep-ball destruction, off-schedule invention and polished dissection while playing his way into unlikely MVP candidacy.

New England governed the NFL as one of football’s great dynasty teams for a large part of two decades as Brady and Belichick clinched six Super Bowl rings together. Historic success always threatened a more glaring void and unattainable heights, but behind Maye the resurgence appears to be officially in motion.

Lottie Woad

Contending in majors and winning tournaments is in impressive at any age, but Lottie Woad was achieving that as an amateur before accelerating to more success in the professional ranks.

Big things were always expected of the former women’s world amateur No 1, England’s only winner of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, but Woad made more headlines by cruising to KPMG Women’s Irish Open victory while still an amateur last July.

She followed it up by finishing third at the Evian Championship, where she threatened winning a major as an amateur with a huge final-day comeback, then made a winning start to her LPGA Tour career.

Woad became just the third player ever to win their maiden LPGA Tour start, claiming a three-shot win at the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open, with further success expected in 2026 as she chases a first major success and a Solheim Cup debut for Team Europe.

Noah Caluori

Henry Pollock burst onto the scene in 2025 – could 2026 be the year Noah Caluori announces himself on the global stage?

The 19-year-old is already a familiar name to fans of domestic rugby after taking the Gallagher Prem by storm at the start of the 2025-26 season.

Social media feeds were awash with highlight reels featuring his five‑try cameo on his first start for Saracens against Sale in October, and it was enough to make Steve Borthwick sit up and take notice as he was called into England’s training squad this autumn.

Caluori may have been made to wait for a first senior international call‑up, but successive 80‑minute England A appearances against New Zealand and Spain – in which he scored a try – and a three‑try burst for Saracens in December have only underscored his potential.

As rugby tactics and philosophies shift further towards a kick‑oriented, high‑ball‑retention game, Caluori’s aerial prowess and raw speed could prove a unique weapon in the armoury of Borthwick’s evolving England.

Victor Wembanyama

Victor Wembanyama has been tipped to be one of the all-time basketball greats since he was a teenager and the San Antonio Spurs centre is beginning to put every aspect of his multi-faceted game together.

He’s also impacting wins for his team, regularly, and the Spurs look to be prominent contenders for the title for the first time since he entered the league.

With a wingspan that could fit around the front of a bus and the ability to shoot stepback threes like Stephen Curry – often showcasing both aspects of his game in the same highlight – there is arguably nobody more box office.

Could Wemby lead the Spurs to a title in year three, surpassing many of the game’s greats in the process? Don’t bet against it!

Victoria Mboko and Learner Tien

After claiming her first WTA 1000 title in 2025, Canadian teenager Mboko will be eyeing a maiden Grand Slam trophy in 2026.

She won the Canadian Open as a wild card last summer, beating four Grand Slam champions en route as she saw off Sofia Kenin and Coco Gauff in straight sets before three-set triumphs over Elena Rybakina and Naomia Osaka in the semi-finals and final respectively.

Mboko ended the season inside the top 20 in the rankings having clinched a second title in November with victory in Hong Kong.

On the men’s side, Learner Tien, 20, looks ready to make further waves, cementing his status as one of the game’s best up-and-comers by winning the Next Gen ATP Finals pre-Christmas, a month after defeating Britain’s Cam Norrie in the Moselle Open final.

American Tien also reached the final of the China Open and even though he lost to Jannik Sinner, he earned words of praise from his opponent with Sinner saying: “You are playing incredible tennis. Hopefully we can share moments like this in the future.”