World's Best Young Talents Unveiled for ITTF World Youth Championships 2025

With the tournament scheduled for 23-30 November 2025, the newly released player and team list promises a spectacular celebration of emerging talent in the sport.

It reads like a who’s who of international youth table tennis, featuring defending champions and rising stars from across the globe. Leading the field is Germany’s Annett Kaufmann, the defending U19 Girls’ Singles champion who made history at Helsingborg 2024 as the first non-Asian player to claim the title.

China arrives with a formidable delegation across both age categories, including top-ranked players such as Wen Ruibo and rising stars like Li Hechen, who claimed all four available U15 gold medals at last year’s edition.

The player and team list showcases truly global representation with Youth Continental champions from Africa, Asia, Europe, Pan America, and Oceania, alongside world ranking qualifiers who have earned their places through exceptional performances throughout the qualification period.

Notable talents include Benyamin Faraji leading the U15 Boys’ rankings, whilst Egyptian Hana Goda and Japan’s Rin Mende are some of the top names in the U19 Girls’ field.

The host Romania will be represented by several promising talents, including Bianca Mei-Rosu in the U19 Girls’ events and Robert Istrate in the U15 Boys’ competition. Building on their historic bronze medal achievement at Helsingborg 2024, Romanian players will have the added motivation of competing on home soil in front of passionate local supporters.

Romania’s recent success at the 2024 championships, where their U19 Boys’ team claimed bronze, has set high expectations for the home championships. The Romanian delegation will be hoping to leverage their home crowd support to achieve even greater success.

The ITTF World Youth Championships 2025 will feature competition in both U19 and U15 age categories, with events in Boys’ and Girls’ Singles, Boys’, Girls’, and Mixed Doubles, and Boys’ and Girls’ Team competitions. The tournament represents the culmination of a year-long qualification process that has seen young players compete across continental championships and world ranking events.

Following the groundbreaking achievements at Helsingborg 2024 – where new milestones were set for African and Pan-American table tennis alongside Germany’s historic breakthrough – preparations for Cluj-Napoca 2025 are well underway after a successful site inspection visit.

ITTF concluded a comprehensive site inspection visit in Cluj-Napoca last week, marking a pivotal milestone in preparations for the ITTF World Youth Championships 2025. The team conducted comprehensive evaluations covering technical operations and venue configurations at the BTarena to ensure the venue meets international championship standards.

With venue preparations now entering their final phase and the world’s best young talents confirmed, Cluj-Napoca is positioned to host a landmark championship that will showcase the future of table tennis at its highest level. The combination of Romania’s table tennis heritage, the BTarena’s modern facilities, and an exceptional field of competitors sets the stage for an unforgettable week of competition.

With the player and team list now confirmed and venue preparations on track, the ITTF World Youth Championships 2025 is set to be a spectacular celebration of table tennis talent.

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