After a few wobbly years in the wilderness, it appears winning Tuttosport‘s Golden Boy award is no longer a curse.
The last three players to take the prize – Erling Haaland, Pedri and Gavi – have quickly ascended to the top of football and there are some prime candidates next in line to their throne.
Here are the 25 finalists for the 2023 Golden Boy award, ranked by how deserving they are to win the award (this is nothing to do with their potential and only slightly to do with their current ability so please do not complain about that).
Club: Genk
Nation: Morocco
Sorry, Bilal, but someone has to finish last.
Club: Basel/RC Lens
Nation: France
Lens were stripped of many of their key players from last season’s impressive Ligue 1 campaign in which they finished second. There’s a lot of hope that Andy Diouf will prove to be their next star.
Club: Red Bull Salzburg
Nation: France
The Red Bull production line extends from energy drinks to footballers nowadays. Lucas Gourna-Douath is next in line to receive some wings.
Club: AZ Alkmaar/Bournemouth
Nation: Hungary
Bournemouth continued assembling a nice team of Football Manager prospects with the acquisition of Milos Kerkez this summer. It’s not going well for either of them.
Club: Dinamo Zagreb
Nation: Croatia
A Dinamo Zagreb number ten who is also capable of playing deeper and has put up some impressive assist tallies early in his career. Where have we heard that before?
Club: Sporting CP
Nation: Ivory Coast
Still only 19 but now bossing it at the back for Sporting CP, it’s no wonder Arsenal were linked with a move for Ousmane Diomande in the summer.
Club: Benfica
Nation: Portugal
90min understands that Benfica starlet Joao Neves has impressed many scouts this past year, with Manchester City and Manchester United both keen on the midfielder.
Club: PSV Eindhoven
Nation: Belgium
Johan Bakayoko turned down a move to Brentford at the end of the summer transfer window, probably recognising that if he repeats his 2023 heroics in 2024 that he could get a much bigger move next year.
A quick left-footed right winger with an eye for goal? The phone is going to be ringing off the hook.
Club: Royal Antwerp
Nation: Belgium
Anyone else’s mind immediately think ‘Vermaelen’ when reading ‘Vermeeren’? No? Just me?
Club: Fenerbahce/Real Madrid
Nation: Turkey
Did Arda Guler even exist before September 2022? Probably not. Does he exist now? Again, probably not. But apparently he was really good at Fenerbahce, so fair enough.
Club: Bayern Munich
Nation: France
The arrival of Harry Kane hasn’t blocked Mathys Tel’s path into the Bayern Munich first-team, but instead sped up his integration. Thomas Tuchel is now finding plenty of use for the 18-year-old.
Club: Brighton & Hove Albion
Nation: Republic of Ireland
What keeps Evan Ferguson from placing much, much higher is Brighton and Roberto De Zerbi’s incessant rotation. Just let the big lad welly them in for ten games in a row, would ya?
Club: Red Bull Salzburg/RB Leipzig
Nation: Slovenia
So apparently when Erling Haaland left Salzburg, they took a sample of his DNA and quickly made a clone of him and named him Benjamin Sesko. Huge, if true.
Club: Girona
Nation: Spain
Before they brought in Joao Cancelo on loan from Manchester City, Barcelona were consistently linked with Arnau Martinez to fill their hole at right-back.
He’s getting quite a bit more recognition now owing to Girona’s excellent start to the new season, sitting above Barca in La Liga.
Club: Atalanta
Nation: Italy
Italy bloody love an imposing defender. It’s to Giorgio Scalvini’s credit that he’s already been capped six times by the senior side at the age of 19 and is almost indispensable for Atalanta already.
Club: Barcelona
Nation: Spain
Ranking Lamine Yamal was the hardest decision on this list.
He’s only been in the Barcelona and Spain senior setups for a very, very short time, but his ability at 16 is utterly insane and the records keep on tumbling.
10th seems like a nice landing spot. At this rate, he’ll probably win the 2024 Golden Boy award anyway.
Club: Brighton & Hove Albion/Chelsea
Nation: England
Congratulations to Chelsea for winning the ‘Custody of Levi Colwill ladder match’, by virtue of the fact he was already their player anyway.
Club: Bayer Leverkusen
Nation: Germany
Florian Wirtz has spent much of this year working his way back to full fitness from an ACL injury. He still looks phenomenal, thankfully.
Club: Paris Saint-Germain
Nation: France
Admittedly, the bar isn’t very high at that circus, but Warren Zaire-Emery is already one of PSG’s more senior professionals at the age of 17. A huge future awaits.
Club: Atalanta/Manchester United
Nation: Denmark
It’s astonishing how much emphasis was placed on Rasmus Hojlund’s actually decent goal record and not on his cracking all-round game upon signing for Manchester United. He’s the real deal.
Club: Barcelona
Nation: Spain
The highest compliment you can pay to Alejandro Balde is that Barcelona have barely noticed that Jordi Alba has departed the club after a decade on their books.
Club: Benfica
Nation: Portugal
The Benfica talent factory have crafted another outstanding youth prospect.
Drawing most attention in Portugal last year was Antonio Silva, who has already been capped five times by his country before he turns 20 later this month.
Club: PSV Eindhoven/RB Leipzig
Nation: Netherlands
An underrated part of Xavi Simons’ ascension is that he’s been in the public eye for a long, long time.
He had thousands of followers on social media before he’d even turned pro. By the time he got his first meaningful loan to PSV last year, much of the football world knew who he was and the potential he has. And so far, the hype has been worth it. It’s rare that wonderkids of such attention make it.
Club: Bayern Munich
Nation: Germany
Jamal Musiala is the perfect mix between a new-age footballer and a throwback flair player, combining the tangible impact of goals and assists with a unique technical touch that’s dying in the modern game.
He even scored the screamer that snatched the Bundesliga title away from Borussia Dortmund, and yet he doesn’t come top of this list.
Club: Borussia Dortmund/Real Madrid
Nation: England
Hello to everyone who clicked on this article just to check who was number one. Hello to those who read the whole thing. Hello to those who have wound up here by mistake.
Obviously Jude Bellingham is going to win the award. He’s a bonafide superstar that transcends the sport now, Real Madrid’s newest Galactico.
READ THE LATEST NEWS, RANKINGS AND EXPLAINERS FOR THE 2023 GOLDEN BOY AWARD
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