Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Ruben Vinagre has only made three Premier League appearances but will be dreaming of battling Mbappe, Pulisic and co.
Winning the prestigious Golden Boy award does not always guarantee that you will be fighting for the Ballon D’Or a few years down the line.
Anderson and Alexandre Pato were named world football’s top young talent in 2008 and 2009 respectively while Mario Gotze, Anthony Martial and Renato Sanches have all failed to live up to the inevitable hype.
But, for the most part, the Golden Boy winner is usually on a path to greatness. Since the award was established in 2003, it has been claimed by Wayne Rooney, Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Isco, Paul Pogba, Raheem Sterling and, last year, Kylian Mbappe.
And, although it is something of a cliché, it truly is nice just to be nominated.
So fans of Wolverhampton Wanderers should be swelling with pride as Ruben Vinagre is included on the 2018 shortlist.
The 19-year-old left-back is in his second season at Wolves and joined permanently from Monaco this summer after a loan spell in 2017/18. Vinagre has made just three substitute appearances in the Premier League so far, but there is no doubting the talent of a player who has represented Portugal from U16 to U19 level.
It is fair to say Vinagre is a long shot to lift the award with Mbappe, Christian Pulisic and Phil Foden also on the shortlist.
But his inclusion is a sign that Wolves have a very promising young talent on their hands.
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