Bellingham, Pedri, Greenwood: Ranking the top 20 Golden Boy nominees | OneFootball

Bellingham, Pedri, Greenwood: Ranking the top 20 Golden Boy nominees | OneFootball

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GiveMeSport

·19 June 2021

Bellingham, Pedri, Greenwood: Ranking the top 20 Golden Boy nominees

Article image:Bellingham, Pedri, Greenwood: Ranking the top 20 Golden Boy nominees

The 100 nominees for the prestigious Golden Boy award have been revealed.

Players under the age of 21 are eligible to receive an award that has been clinched by plenty of wonderkids who've eventually gone on to carve out exceptional careers in the game.


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Borussia Dortmund hitman Erling Haaland was crowned Golden Boy in 2020 and previous winners include Raheem Sterling, Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe.

The award, which was first introduced in 2003, is voted for by sports journalists from prestigious media outlets and there are a handful of England international prodigies in the running this year - including Jude Bellingham, Mason Greenwood and Bukayo Saka.

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There is, of course, plenty of stiff competition coming from some of Europe's most consistently elite talent factories.

Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona both have stark reputations for developing the next generation of world-class footballers, and unsurprisingly a handful of players from those clubs have made it onto the 100-man strong shortlist.

You can see the names of every single nominee below:

Here at GIVEMESPORT, we've combed through all 100 nominees to create a ranking of the 19 most likely candidates to scoop the 2021 accolade.

Based on a combination of raw ability and form during the 2020/21 season, we've crowned Jude Bellingham on the podium ahead of La Masia product Pedri and Ajax enforcer Ryan Gravenberch.

Take a look at the list in full below:

20. Yari Verschaeren

19. Rodrygo

18. Billy Gilmour

17. Curtis Jones

16. Eric Garcia

15. laix Moriba

14. Eduardo Camavinga

13. Giovani Reyna

12. Jamal Musiala

11. Adam Hlozek

10. Rayan Cherki

9. Mason Greenwood

8. Myron Boadu

7. Nuno Mendes

6. Jeremy Doku

5. Florian Wirtz

4. Bukayo Saka

3. Ryan Gravenberch

2. Pedri

1. Jude Bellingham

Manchester United star Mason Greenwood could have featured much higher up the list but, aside from his end of season flurry, he had a relatively average campaign.

Bellingham gets our vote having excelled in both the Bundesliga and Champions League at just 17 years of age, playing with, and conducting his media duties with, a maturity well beyond his years.

He's been an instant hit at Dortmund and looks destined for a massive future in the game.

Pedri was a close second after establishing himself as a key player under Ronaldo Koeman, but Bellingham just gets the nod given how rapidly he adapted to a new country at such a tender age.

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Article image:Bellingham, Pedri, Greenwood: Ranking the top 20 Golden Boy nominees

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