16-year-old Barcelona prodigy the favorite to win 2024 Golden Boy | OneFootball

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FC Barcelona is renowned for having been home to some of the most individually gifted players of the sport. The likes of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Neymar Jr, Ronaldinho, and others are just a few of those special names. Many of these Barcelona stars have also been some of the most successful players when it comes to individual accolades.

One of the many individual awards where Barcelona have dominated proceedings over the years is the prestigious Golden Boy Award. Given to the most outstanding young player of any given year, it is an award that Barcelona players have dominated over the years compared to other clubs.

Lionel Messi in 2005, Pedri in 2021, and Gavi in 2022 bring the total number of winners from Barcelona to three. Even Joao Felix, who won the award with SL Benfica and Atletico Madrid in 2019, now plays for Barcelona. Moreover, it seems that the Catalan giants are currently in the lead when it comes to adding a new winner to their catalog as well.

As per Tuttosport themselves, the organizers of the award itself, Lamine Yamal of Barcelona is currently the favorite to win the award for the 2024 edition. Only aged 16, he’s one of the leading candidates as well and is one of the three Barcelona starlets in the top 20 of the rankings.

Despite having officially debuted last season, the 16-year-old Barcelona academy prodigy has had a record-breaking season thus far. For both club and country, he has been sensational and performing at a level that is unheard of for a player of his age at the extremes of football that he is playing in.

With 6 goals and 7 assists to his name already this season, Yamal is flying high. He is closely followed by SL Benfica’s Joao Neves in second place, who is himself a midfielder with a great deal of hype surrounding him.

Apart from Yamal, Pau Cubarsi and Gavi are ranked 13th and 17th respectively. The young defender is having a sensational breakout season and is amongst the best-performing youngsters throughout the European continent. Gavi, on the other hand, sees his ranking suffer mainly due to having gotten injured for a prolonged period of time.