Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford has been named on the shortlist for the UEFA Golden Boy award.
Seen as the ‘Ballon d’Or for U21 players’, Rashford joins 39 of the best talents playing in European football today on the list organised by Italian publication Tuttosport.
National newspapers around Europe will nominate five players to win the award, awarding them points which vary on how impressive they think each young player has been over the last 12 months – 10 points for the most impressive, 7 points for second, 5 for third, 3 for fourth and 1 point for the fifth-most impressive nominee.
Adjudicating newspapers include BILD (Germany), Blick (Switzerland), A Bola (Portugal), l’Équipe (France), France Football (France), Marca (Spain), Mundo Deportivo (Spain), Ta Nea (Greece), Sport Express (Russia), De Telegraaf (Netherlands), and The Times (United Kingdom).
The award was introduced in 2003, with the inaugural winner being Rafael van der Vaart, then of Ajax. Other notable past winners include Wayne Rooney (2004), Lionel Messi (2005), Sergio Aguero (2007), Mario Gotze (2011) and Paul Pogba (2013). Last year’s winner was Manchester United’s very own Anthony Martial.
2016 has been the year of Marcus Rashford. After being thrust into the side to make his debut in the Europa League where he bagged a brace against FC Midtjylland, Rashford went on to score nine goals in 22 appearances for Manchester United between February and May which helped earn him a shock call-up to the England squad for Euro 2016.
He’s carried that form into this season with four goals in seven appearances so far in a Manchester United side that features strong attacking options.
Other notable players nominated for this year’s award include Moussa Dembele (Celtic), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea), Kelechi Iheanacho (Manchester City), Dele Alli (Tottenham), Demarai Gray (Leicester City), Alex Iwobi (Arsenal), Marco Asensio (Real Madrid) and Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich).
