Ranked: League One’s 20 best young players

The 2022/23 League One regular season has concluded - and now we can look forward to the lottery of the play-offs over the next few weeks. Sheffield Wednesday, Bolton, Barnsley and Peterborough United will all battle it out for a place in the Championship next season.

The third tier acts as a bridge between the Championship which is just below the Premier League, as well as League Two, which isn't too far off in quality of the National League, which is outside the top four fully professional leagues in England. It's a league which has several teams that have dined at English football's top table, but are now trying to find their way again.

League One is a good division for young players to hone their craft, either through coming their academies at their respective clubs, or if higher division teams want to send their players out to get some valuable loan experience. Bristol Rovers are a team that have fully utilised the loan market, and have had multiple success stories over the past two seasons.

At the EFL Awards, held in late April before some promotions and titles were undecided, Bali Mumba was crowned the Young Player of the Year. The on-loan Norwich City man finished the campaign with seven assists and six goals from left-back. He beat off competition from Ipswich's Cameron Humphreys as well as Charlton's on-loan Crystal Palace winger Jes Rak-Sakyi.

Below are the 20 players either 21-years-old or younger ranked by their performance rating in League One this season, as rated by WhoScored. WhoScored is used by the EFL to decide weekly, monthly and seasonal awards.