The 25 nominees for the 2025 Golden Boy Award have been revealed, featuring talented young players like Desire Doue, Arda Guler, Myles Lewis-Skelly, and Kenan Yildiz.
The 2025 Golden Boy Award nominees have been announced. The award, created by Italian newspaper Tuttosport, recognizes the best under-21 footballer each year, and its past winners include Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, and Wayne Rooney.
This year’s nominees include Desire Doue, Arda Guler, Myles Lewis-Skelly, and Kenan Yildiz, among others. To be eligible, players must have been born on or after January 1, 2005, and belong to a squad in one of UEFA’s top 25 leagues.
The 25-man shortlist comprises the top 20 players from the Golden Boy Index, plus five wild cards selected by the Tuttosport editorial team. Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid have the most nominees, with three shortlisted players each.
PSG’s Desire Doue had a standout season, finishing fourteenth in the Ballon d’Or rankings and runner-up to Lamine Yamal in the Kopa Trophy. Other notable nominees include Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri, Tottenham Hotspur’s Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray, and Chelsea’s Estevao and Jorrel Hato.
The Premier League is well-represented, with nine nominees from clubs like Manchester United, Manchester City, and Liverpool.
Despite the stacked list, this year’s Golden Boy might be won by PSG’s Desire Doue. He was among PSG’s top 5 players this season, and his performance in the UCL final inevitably sealed his place as one of the best U-21 talents in the world right now. It won’t be a surprise to see him win it.
