Italian media outlet Tuttosport hand out the Golden Boy Award every season, and today brought the release of the nominee short list. To qualify for the award, a footballer must be U21 and play in one of Europe’s top tier leagues.
One fifth of the list, which is 20 names long, is comprised by English Premier Leaguers, with Arsenal, Everton and Manchester City and Chelsea represented. The Blues representative is one of the most intriguing, because it’s a player who was with a Championship level side last season- Mason Mount. Frank Lampard brought the budding superstar with the Vanilla Ice style hairdo up to Stamford Bridge with him, and he’s been in a revelation in west London.
Mount has four goals on the young season, and he’s started all eight league games for the fifth place side. The Golden Boy award list is certainly something constructed for the purpose of generating discussion and debate, and that’s exactly what the inclusion of Mason Mount, and a few others on the list, does.
2019-20 Golden Boy Award Nominee Short List
Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich)
Matthijs de Light (Juventus)
Gianluigi Donnarumma (AC Milan)
Ansu Fati (Barcelona)
Phil Foden (Manchester City)
Matteo Guendouzi (Arsenal)
Erling Braut Haland (RB Salzburg)
Kai Havertz (Bayer Leverkusen)
Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid)
Dejan Joveljic (Eintracht Frankfurt)
Moise Kean (Everton)
Kang-in Lee (Valencia)
Andriy Oleksiyovych Lunin (Real Valladolid)
Donyell Malen (PSV)
Mason Mount (Chelsea)
Rodrygo (Real Madrid)
Jadon Sancho (BVB)
Ferran Torres (Valencia)
Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid)
Nicolo Zaniolo (AS Roma)
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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