The organizer of the Golden Boy Award, Tuttosport, has released the names of the 100 players nominated for the 2022 Golden Boy award on Wednesday, June 15, 2022.
Note that the Golden Boy award is specifically for players who are performing excellently well and are under 21-year-old in a calendar year.
The current holder of the award is FC Barcelona starlet Pedri, a 19-year-old Spanish midfielder who managed to score four goals and provided an assist in 21 games in all competitions for FC Barcelona last season.
In the 2022 Golden Boy award, the organizer nominated five players from FC Barcelona – midfielders Pedri, Gavi, Nico, striker Ansu Fati and left-back Alejandro Baldé.
💥 Pedri, Ansu, Gavi, Nico & Balde are candidates for the Golden Boy award for 2022 💥
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) June 15, 2022
While the reigning UEFA Champions League winners, Real Madrid have one nominee, midfielder Eduardo Camavinga.
🌟🔝 @Camavinga is among the nominees for the 2022 Golden Boy award!
— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) June 15, 2022
4⃣0⃣ matches
🏆 3 titles
⚽️ 2 goals#RealFootball pic.twitter.com/j063BCwlAZ
As for the Premier League, 10 players made the 2022 Golden Boy 100-player shortlist. Two players from Manchester United, Amad Diallo, and Anthony Elanga, and two players from Liverpool, Harvey Elliot and Fabio Carvalho (just joined Liverpool from Fulham).
Other Premier League players on the list are Wolves duo Fabio Silva and Ki-Jana, Leeds’ Joe Gelhardt, Manchester City’s Yan Couto, Tottenham’s Pape Matar Sarr, and Brighton’s Kacper Kozlowski.
Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala and Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham are also among the prominent names in the 2022 Golden Boy 100-player shortlist.
How the 2022 Golden Boy award will be decided?
Since 2003 when Tuttosport started giving awards to outstanding under-21 players, the organizer of the Golden Boy award has majorly depended on votes from journalists representing different newspapers and media outlets to decide who wins the Golden Boy award.
Note that each vote from a journalist carries ten points for a player that comes first on the journalist’s voting list, the second gets 7 points, the third gets five points, the fourth gets three points, and the fifth gets a point.
Before it gets to this stage, the 100-player shortlist must have been cut down to 80, then 60, then 40, and then 20 finalists. It is from the 20 finalists that the journalists will pick their top five players arranged according to how impressive the journalists think the players have been.
Afterward, the votes of the journalists will be collated and then the eventual winner of the process will be announced at an award ceremony which usually takes place in November every year.
Who are the past winners of the Golden Boy award?
Since 2003, nineteen players have won the Golden Boy award which means that any player who emerges winner of the 2022 Golden Boy award will become the 20th winner of the award.
Note that the winner of the first edition of the award is Rafa van der Vaart. He won the 2003 edition of the award when he was playing at Ajax.
Currently, Manchester United have recorded the most winners of the Golden Boy award. Three players that used to play for the Premier League club have won the award – Wayne Rooney, Anderson, and Anthony Martial.
While clubs like Juventus, Ajax, Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona, Monaco, and Benfica, have recorded two wins each so far.
Below are all the winners of the Golden Boy award from 2003 to 2021
- 2003 – Rafael van der Vaart (Ajax)
- 2004 – Wayne Rooney (Everton/Manchester United)
- 2005 – Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
- 2006 – Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal)
- 2007 – Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid)
- 2008 – Anderson (Manchester United)
- 2009 – Alexandre Pato (AC Milan)
- 2010 – Mario Balotelli (Inter/Manchester City)
- 2011 – Mario Gotze (Borussia Dortmund)
- 2012 – Isco (Malaga)
- 2013 – Paul Pogba (Juventus)
- 2014 – Raheem Sterling (Liverpool)
- 2015 – Anthony Martial (Monaco/Manchester United)
- 2016 – Renato Sanches (Benfica/Bayern Munich)
- 2017 – Kylian Mbappe (Monaco/Paris Saint-Germain)
- 2018 – Matthijs de Ligt (Ajax)
- 2019 – Joao Felix (Benfica/Atletico Madrid)
- 2020 – Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund)
- 2021 – Pedri (Barcelona)
Below are the 100-player shortlist for the 2022 Golden Boy award
- Karim Adeyemi (Borussia Dortmund)
- Felix Afena-Gyan (Roma)
- Lucien Agoume (Inter)
- Anouar Ait El Hadj (Anderlecht)
- Janis Antiste (Spezia)
- Alejandro Balde (Barcelona)
- Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund)
- Stipe Biuk (HNK Hajduk Split)
- Edoardo Bove (Roma)
- Jayden Braaf (Borussia Dortmund)
- Brian Brobbey (Ajax)
- Eduardo Camavinga (Real Madrid)
- Rayan Cherki (Lyon)
- Mohamed-Ali Cho (Angers)
- Francisco Conceicao (Porto)
- Yan Couto (Manchester City)
- Mohamed Daramy (Ajax)
- Amar Dedic (Red Bull Salzburg)
- Amad Diallo (Manchester United)
- Diego Moreira (Benfica)
- Jeremy Doku (Rennes)
- Radu Dragusin (Juventus)
- Hugo Ekitike (Reims)
- Anthony Elanga (Manchester United)
- Harvey Elliott (Liverpool)
- Sebastiano Esposito (Inter)
- Maxime Esteve (Montpellier)
- Fabio Carvalho (Liverpool)
- Fabio Silva (Wolves)
- Ansu Fati (Barcelona)
- Gavi (Barcelona)
- Joe Gelhardt (Leeds)
- Wilfried Gnonto (Zurich)
- Ryan Gravenberch (Bayern Munich)
- Malo Gusto (Lyon)
- Josko Gvardiol (RB Leipzig)
- Henrique Araujo (Benfica)
- Aaron Hickey (Bologna)
- Piero Hincapie (Bayer Leverkusen)
- Adam Hlozek (Bayer Leverkusen)
- Ki-Jana Hoever (Wolves)
- Ilaix Moriba (RB Leipzig)
- Joelson Fernandes (Sporting CP)
- Isak Bergmann Johannesson (Copenhagen)
- Nemanja Jovic (Partizan Belgrade)
- Arnaud Kalimuendo (Paris Saint-Germain)
- Jakub Kaminski (Wolfsburg)
- Ansgar Knauff (Borussia Dortmund)
- Kacper Kozlowski (Brighton)
- Isaac Lihadji (Lille)
- Castello Lukeba (Lyon)
- Noni Madueke (PSV Eindhoven)
- Eliot Matazo (Monaco)
- Nathanael Mbuku (Reims)
- Fabio Miretti (Juventus)
- Youssoufa Moukoko (Borussia Dortmund)
- Yunus Musah (Valencia)
- Jamal Musiala (Bayern Munich)
- Cher Ndour (Benfica)
- Luca Netz (Borussia Monchengladbach)
- Tanguy Nianzou (Bayern Munich)
- Nico (Barcelona)
- Nico Williams (Athletic Club)
- Nuno Mendes (Paris Saint-Germain)
- Becir Omeragic (Zurich)
- Simone Pafundi (Udinese)
- Matias Palacios (Basel)
- Paulo Bernardo (Benfica)
- Pedri (Barcelona)
- Yeremi Pino (Villarreal)
- Devyne Rensch (Ajax)
- Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund)
- Fabian Rieder (Young Boys)
- Rodrigo Ribeiro (Sporting CP)
- Luka Romero (Lazio)
- Georginio Rutter (Hoffenheim)
- Lazar Samardzic (Udinese)
- Cisse Sandra (Club Brugge)
- Pape Matar Sarr (Tottenham)
- Joe Scally (Borussia Monchengladbach)
- Giorgio Scalvini (Atalanta)
- Benjamin Sesko (Reb Bull Salzburg)
- Brandon Soppy (Udinese)
- Matias Soule (Juventus)
- Filip Stevanovic (Manchester City)
- Luka Sucic (Red Bull Salzburg)
- Kamaldeen Sulemana (Rennes)
- Tomas Suslov (Groningen)
- Jan Thielmann (Koln)
- Tiago Tomas (Sporting CP)
- Malik Tillman (Bayern Munich)
- Destiny Udogie (Hellas Verona)
- Maarten Vandevoordt (Genk)
- Aster Vranckx (Wolfsburg)
- Elye Wahi (Montpellier)
- Illya Zabarnyi (Dynamo Kyiv)
- Nicola Zalewski (Roma)
