Ronaldinho among 3 legends to vote Saka for Kopa Trophy | OneFootball

Though Bukayo Saka didn’t end up winning the Kopa Trophy, the Arsenal winger did receive some votes from a few famous names in world football.

Bukayo Saka has undoubtedly been one of the world’s best youngsters in 2022, and that was reflected in his nomination for the Kopa Trophy award this year, his second nomination in a row.

The Kopa Trophy is essentially the youth edition of the Ballon d’Or, voted on by previous winners of the Ballon d’Or. Unfortunately, Saka didn’t end up winning the award on either occasion, with Pedri receiving it in 2021 and Gavi in 2022.

With Barcelona and Real Madrid having so many former Ballon d’Or winners, the voting is certainly skewed in favour of their prospects. Still, it was nice to see the names of the players who did vote for Saka.

Sport report that Ronaldinho, Ruud Gullit, and Marco van Basten all gave Saka votes, putting him third in their top three. To get a seal of approval from footballing legends like those three is certainly something to be proud of.

In the cases of Ronaldinho and Gullit, this isn’t the first time they’ve voted for Saka. Both put the Arsenal youngster in their top three in 2021, with Gullit putting the teenager as his first choice.

Rivaldo and Hristo Stoitchkov were the other two players to vote for Saka in 2021.

Saka will be too old to win the award next year, so he’ll just have to knuckle down and start trying to break into the Ballon d’Or nominations instead!