Golden Boy 2023: It’s a star-studded cast for the annual award, with the likes of Bellingham, Musiala, Silva, Balde and Gavi on the list.
This years award will feature the likes of Jude Bellingham, Jamal Musiala, Alejandro Garnacho and last year’s winner Gavi.
Italian paper Tuttosport will hand out the prize to the best player aged under 21 in European football, and their top-10 index has Musiala as the favourite to win it.
Jude Bellingham, Jamal Musiala, Alejandro Garnacho and Gavi have been tipped as the top favorites.
Golden Boy award is given out each year by Italian outlet Tuttosport, rewarding the best player aged under 21 playing in Europe.
Gavi won the Golden Boy Award in 2022, and at 18 years old, he is still eligible to defend his crown.
The Golden Boy Index, a data-driven ranking of Europe’s top 100 young players, has Musiala in top spot, with Bellingham and Gavi in third position.
Jamal Musiala on the other hand, scored 16 goals for Bayern Munich in 2022/23 as he established himself as one of the best young midfielders in the world.
The award will be voted on by sports journalist from Europe’s biggest media organizations.
The Golden Boy Award has previously been won by Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappe, Raheem Sterling and Wayne Rooney.
TOP 10 GOLDEN BOY INDEX
- Jamal Musiala
- Jude Bellingham
- Gavi
- Antonio Silva
- Alejandro Balde
- Xavi Simons
- Florian Wirtz
- Benjamin Sesko
- Devyne Rensch
- Giorgio Scalvini
For the purpose of this article, we will be talking about the first five favorites and their stats for the 2022/23 season.
Jamal Musiala
Jamal Musiala scored 12 goals in 33 matches in the Bundesliga 2022/2023 season. 6 of the 12 goals were scored at home while he scored 6 goals at away games.
Overall, Jamal Musiala’s goals scored per 90 minutes is 0.49 and Jamal Musiala’s total G/A (goals + assists) is 22 for this season.
His goal involvement equates to 0.9 per 90 minutes and his Non-Penalty xG per 90 minutes is 0.36.
This puts Jamal Musiala’s npxG output at 8.75 which puts him in the top 97 percentile of Bundesliga players.
Jude Bellingham
Jude Bellingham has scored 8 goals in 31 matches so far in the Bundesliga 2022/2023 season of which 7 of the 8 goals were scored at home while he scored 1 goals at away games.
Bellingham’s goals scored per 90 minutes is 0.27 and his total G/A (goals + assists) is 12 for this season.
His goal involvement equates to 0.4 per 90 minutes with Non-Penalty xG per 90 minutes being 0.21.
This thus puts Jude Bellingham’s npxG output at 6.06 which puts him in the top 87 percentile of Bundesliga players.
Gavi
Gavi played 32 matches (plus 6 as a sub) in the just concluded season, and have played 6 shots on target from a total of 14 shots and scored 1 goal (2.81 xG).
Gavi averaged 32 passes per match with a pass completion rate of 87%, and had 3 assists.
Antonio Silva
Antonio Silva in the 2022/23 season played 46 matches for Benfica and has managed to bag 5 goals.
Just like the rest on the list, Silva is also the favorite to win the Golden Boy following his exploits in the Primera Division this season.
António João Pereira de Albuquerque Tavares da Silva is a Portuguese footballer who was born on 30 October, 2003 and plays as a centre-back for Benfica and the Portugal national team.
Alejandro Balde
Alejandro Balde Martinez has scored 1 times after 38 match days in the season 2022/2023 and this places him the number 202 scorer in La Liga last season.
He has 5 assists after 38 match days in 2022/2023 and these statistics ranks him number 19 in the La Liga.
Balde also has a total of 0 chances created in season 2022/2023 but he has won 43 aerial duels and 3 tackles.
In addition, he made a total of 0 blocks. Based on these statistics after match day 38, he ranks on number 215 in the La Liga.
This is the list of favorites to lift the Golden Boy Award 2023 but one cannot be certain until we see the results of the votes cast by journalists.
When is the Trophy awarded?
A shortlist of players is comprised every year with the final list of candidates usually available around October and the award ceremony typically taking place in November.
It should be noted that the voting process would be open to football fans as well on the official website of Tuttosport.
The link for the Golden Boy 2023 voting is available here.
The venue for the 2023 Golden Boy Award has not been revealed yet, but as soon as it is released, we will do well to update this piece.
