Three Manchester City players have been named on the shortlist for the UEFA Golden Boy award.
Kelechi Iheanacho and Leroy Sane who are working with City every day, have been joined on the list by loanee Oliver Ntcham, who is currently midway through his temporary loan spell at Genoa.
Seen as the ‘Ballon d’Or for U21 players’, the City trio join 37 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, seven points for second, five for third, three for fourth and one 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 Anthony Martial.
Other notable players nominated for this year’s award include Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Dele Alli (Tottenham), Demarai Gray (Leicester City), Alex Iwobi (Arsenal), Marco Asensio (Real Madrid) and Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich).
