I think it's something called language degradation, beloved by sub-editors, especially on teletext and similar services where they have to squeeze their meaning into as few letters as possible. Hence "player" becomes "star" or even "ace".
In this case, without any need to economise on number of letters used, "junior player" has become "star".
Elite Skolar is sometimes more into hyperbole than Wiggy Hemmings is.
