A surprise Manchester United star has been named among the nominees for this year’s Golden Boy Award, with eight of his Premier League peers also in contention for the top prize.
Previous years have seen the honour, which is handed out by Italian sports newspaper Tuttosport, awarded to rising stars including Jude Bellingham and Lamine Yamal, who claimed the honour last year.
The list is composed of players chosen by an algorithm created by Football Benchmark Index, with a view to empirically choosing the strongest talents in international football.
To ensure the algorithm doesn’t skew unfairly in favour of undeserving candidates, the outlet has also entered five ‘wildcards’ into the voting.
Against the backdrop of an unimpressive season for Manchester United, some might have been surprised to see a young player singled out for brilliance.
But defender Leny Yoro has earned himself a nomination for the award after a fine individual season at Old Trafford last term.
Yoro joins Nico O’Reilly as representatives on the list from the Manchester clubs, the Man City star having been relied upon heavily by Pep Guardiola since the start of this season.
Leny Yoro has been nominated for the 2025 Golden Boy Award alongside nine other Premier League stars
Also making the list is Chelsea’s new forward Estevao (centre) who scored the Blues’ late winner against Liverpool
O’Reilly made just nine Premier League appearances in the last campaign, but has featured in every single top-flight clash of the 2025-26 season, and both of their Champions League outings.
Also nominated from the Premier League are Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall from Tottenham, and Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri from Arsenal.
Liverpool’s Giovanni Leoni – who is yet to play a Premier League minute for his new side after tearing his cruciate ligament – was handed a wildcard after an impressive 2024-25 season at Parma.
Chelsea’s Jorrel Hato, and new Brazilian starlet Estevao, who announced himself to his new league in some style with his late winner against Liverpool before the international break, round out the pack.
Making up 32 per cent of the cohort, the Premier League is the most well-represented league among the nominees.
LaLiga has four of its starlets in the Golden Boy Awards’ ranks, including former Bournemouth star Dean Huijsen – now of Real Madrid – his team-mates Arda Guler and Franco Mastanuono, and Barcelona’s Pau Cubarsi.
There are also four nominees playing in Ligue 1, including Desire Doue, Senny Mayulu, and Warren Zaire-Emery, and RC Strasbourg’s Mamadou Sarr.
Serie A and the Bundesliga have two nominees apiece – including Borussia Dortmund’s Jobe Bellingham – with three from Portugal’s top clubs.
The remaining nominee comes from Belgium’s Club Brugge – Aleksandar Stankovich.
An international panel of 50 journalists will now decide the winner from a group of players worth more than £1billion on the transfer market, with the results announced at a press conference in November.
