Three Manchester United players have been named in the shortlist for European football’s Golden Boy award.
Anthony Martial, Adnan Januzaj and Luke Shaw are all up for the prestigious accolade, which boasts previous winners such as Wayne Rooney (2004), Lionel Messi (2005), Sergio Aguero (2007) and Paul Pogba (2013).
The award is voted for by newspapers such as The Times, Marca, De Telegraaf and Tuttosport, with each outlet allowed to nominate 10 players, then give them points based on order of preference for the winner. It rewards being the best player in Europe in that particular year.
Whilst Luke Shaw may have had a much better chance of winning the award had he not suffered a double leg break against Club Brugge earlier this season, Adnan Januzaj is unlikely to win the award because he has spent most of his loan spell with Borussia Dortmund so far sitting on the bench. Anthony Martial hit the ground running when he arrived at Old Trafford so could be in contention.
Competition is stiff, however, with other names on the shortlist including Anderlecht’s highly-rated Youri Tielemans, Barcelona’s Munir El Haddadi, Paris Saint Germain’s Adrien Rabiot and Ajax’s Anwar El Ghazi, who are all tipped to be superstars in the future – and are already very impressive for their respective teams. Last years’s winner was Raheem Sterling, whilst he was still at Liverpool.
