The shortlist includes players from Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Leicester City, Chelsea and Celtic.
Manchester United’s Anthony Martial won the 2015 European Golden Boy award
The shortlist for this years European Golden Boy award has been revealed by Tuttosport. The illustrious award given to the best player under the age of 21 playing in a top flight European league has been running since 2003, and has been won by the likes of Wayne Rooney and Lionel Messi in that time.
The 40-man shortlist, which is really more of a long-list in many respects, features some of Europe’s best known teenagers and wonder kids, as well as some lesser known players, by virtue of its length. There are eight Premier League players present on the list, from eight different Premier League clubs, of which four are English.
Premier League champions Leicester City are represented on the list; as are Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool. The likes of Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund are represented from across Europe, although somewhat unusually no Barcelona players feature among the 40 shortlisted.
Marcus Rashford has made the shortlist for the Golden Boy
Manchester United ace Marcus Rashford has unsurprisingly been nominated, as has fellow prolific young forward Kelechi Iheanacho of Manchester City. Tottenham’s Dele Alli, who scored 10 goals in the Premier League last season, also makes the cut. Both the Manchester United midfielder and the Spurs midfielder have broken into the England squad in the last 12 months.
Leicester City’s Demarai Gray also features, the tricky young winger who scored a delightful consolation goal against Manchester United last week. Gray, like Dele Alli, was playing his club football in the EFL until recently, Gray with Birmingham City and Alli with MK Dons.
Liverpool youngster Marko Grujic is also among those shortlisted. The 20-year-old showed much promise at Red Star Belgrade, although we are yet to see if he is capable of reproducing that in the Premier League. Chelsea’s Ruben Loftus-Cheek is rather generously included, whilst clearly talented, he has failed to make a Premier League appearance this season, and made only 13 last season.
Ruben Loftus Cheek celebrates after scoring the first goal for Chelsea
Manchester City are the only Premier League team with two players present, with Germany international Leroy Sane joining Kelechi Iheanacho on the shortlist. Celtic’s Moussa Dembele has earned his place on the list, having made a flying start to life at Celtic, crowned by his brace last night in the Champions League against Man City.
Of the 8 Premier League players present on the shortlist, only Marcus Rashford has any chance of winning one would think, and even that is a very slim chance. The outstanding candidates have to be Renato Sanches, Kingsley Coman and Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Renato Sanches had an excellent campaign last season with Benfica, winning the double, before heading to the Euros and playing a major role as Portugal caused an upset to win the tournament. Having now made a big money move to Bayern Munich, the energetic midfielder has already made 4 outings for Bayern’s first team. An extraordinary year for a player who is still only just 19 years of age.
Renato Sanches is in with a strong chance of winning the award
Kingsley Coman is also in with a shout, aged 20, the pacy winger has already win 10 trophies during his career, and been on the losing side in a Champions League final. That is more trophies than Lionel Messi had at Coman’s age, and currently on-loan at Bayern Munich, that tally is likely to rise again this season. Coman played 35 games last season and also appeared for finalists France at Euro 2016.
Despite the extraordinary success of both Sanches and Coman at such young ages, AC Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarruma still stands a strong chance. AC Milan’s first choice goalkeeper and an Italian international at the age of 17 is a quite simply incredible achievement, and if he doesn’t win it next year, one would expect him to in either 2017, 2018 or 2019.
The awards has had 13 previous winners, many of whom have gone on to achieve greatness within the game. Rafael van der Vaart, Wayne Rooney, Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas and Sergio Aguero are all fine examples of Golden Boy winners who had fine careers. The 2008 winner Anderson and 2010 winner Mario Balotelli have experienced less consistent success. With three successes, no team has had more Golden Boy winners than Manchester United.
Who should win the 2016 European Golden Boy award?
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