Ranking the 10 most valuable Golden Boy 2021 nominees
The Golden Boy award is bestowed on the best under-21 player in a European top-flight league in a calendar year.
The award, a brainchild of Italian newspaper Tuttosport, was first awarded in 2003. Now, 12 prominent European newspapers nominate five nominees apiece for the prestigious award. Ten points are allotted to the top nominee, seven for second, five for third, three for fourth and one for fifth. A shortlist is then announced based on the total points accumulated by various players.
Past winners of the Golden Boy award include Rafael van der Vaart (the inaugural winner), Wayne Rooney, Lionel Messi, Paul Pogba, Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland, among others. For this year's Golden Boy award, a total of 40 nominees have been announced.
On that note, here are the ten most valuable nominees for the 2021 Golden Boy award. Without further ado, let's get started:
#10 Ryan Gravenberch (Ajax/Netherlands) - €33 million
Ryan Gravenberch is one of the most promising teenagers in the game at the moment.
The then 16-year-old Ajax prodigy became the youngest player from the club to make his Eredivisie debut when he came on for a 2018-19 league game. Gravenberch became one of the youngest scorers in the competition when he found the back of the net for Ajax the following season.
Last season, the attacking midfielder bagged eight goal contributions (three goals, five assists) in Ajax's triumphant Eredivisie campaign. Gravenberch then scored against Georgia to become one of the youngest Oranje goalscorers since the turn of the century.
Ryan Gravenberch 🇳🇱 (19 y, 21 d) is the second youngest player to score for Netherlands in the last 15 years, after Myron Boadu (18 y, 309 d in 2019). [Opta] #NEDGEO #NED https://t.co/uM2ejm9rYv
Courted by many top clubs from around the continent, the two-time Eredivisie winner has scored once in five league games for holders Ajax this season.
#9 Giovanni Reyna (Borussia Dortmund/USA) - €38 million
Giovanni Reyna is one of the most exciting American players to have emerged on the scene in recent times.
Still only 18, the attacking midfielder has already made close to 100 appearances across all levels for the club. Reyna has bagged 18 strikes for BvB, with two of them coming this campaign.
This season, he became the youngest player to play in 50 Bundesliga games, beating the previous record set by Chelsea star Kai Havertz.
50 - Giovanni Reyna makes his 50th Bundesliga appearance - aged 18 years, 9 months and 14 days, he is the youngest player in Bundesliga history to reach this mark. Diamond. #BVBTSG https://t.co/ls2ZzQfxzt
Reyna has also excelled for his country, scoring four times in nine appearances. One of those strikes came against Mexico in the USA's 3-2 win in the CONCACAF Nations League final in June this year.
#8 Jamal Musiala (Bayern Munich/Germany) - €38 million
Jamal Musiala, the third attacking midfielder on the list, made his club debut in Bayern Munich's treble-winning 2019-20 campaign.
Since then, Musiala has become a key player for the Bavarian giants, bagging 15 goal contributions (11 goals, four assists) in his next 44 games across competitions.
The 18-year-old has scored four times this season. He became Germany's youngest-ever debutant at a major tournament when he appeared at Euro 2020.
18 - Aged 18 years and 117 days, Jamal Musiala became the youngest ever player to make an appearance for the German national team at a major tournament (World Cup & Euros). Premature. #EURO2020 #GER #GERHUN https://t.co/DAwYah4ZJV
He hasn't opened his account in eight games for Germany, but it's only a matter of time before he does that.
#7 Nuno Mendes (PSG/Portugal) - €40 million
Nuno Mendes is one of the most exciting young full-backs in the game at the moment.
Still only 19, the Portuguese left-back had a breakout campaign with champions Sporting CP. Mendes particularly impressed with his crossing ability, tallying a better success rate than the Premier League full-backs last season.
🎯 Nuno Mendes vs Premier League full-backs for cross success rate since last season:
Nuno Mendes - 31.4%
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Luke Shaw - 29.9%
Trent Alexander-Arnold - 24.7%
Reece James - 24.4%
Andy Robertson - 20.9%
Ben Chilwell - 19.9%
Joao Cancelo - 15.7%
Kyle Walker - 4.9%
Now at PSG on loan from Sporting, Mendes has made eight appearances for Portugal, though he didn't play a game at Euro 2020. The 19-year-old has made two Ligue 1 appearances and one in the Champions League for PSG.
Depending on how he fares at the Ligue 1 giants, PSG have an option to make Mendes' loan move permanent at the end of the season.