The list of 100 nominees for the Golden Boy 2022 award includes 10 Portuguese players, a trophy that annually identifies the best player under 21 to play in Europe and is distributed by the Italian newspaper Tuttosport. The winner after Pedri (Barcelona) will be announced in November, a month after 20 names were dropped from the list. To date, only two Portuguese have won the award: Renato Sanchez (2016) and Joao Felix (2019).
Rodrigo Ribeiro (Sporting), Tiago Tomas (Stuttgart), Nuno Mendes (PSG), Joelson Fernandez (Basel), Henrique Araujo (Benfica), Fabio Silva (Wolverhampton), Fabio Carvalho (Fulham / Liver). (Benfica), Francisco Conceição (FC Porto) and Paulo Bernardo (Benfica). Also note the presence of two foreign footballers playing in Portugal: Cher Endeavor (Benfica) and Jan Couto (Sp. Braga).
Of all the nominees, 19-year-old Nuno Mendis seemed the most likely to win the trophy at the outset, as he managed to impose himself on Paris-Saint-Germain, given just the end of the season. In the team (became the French champion) and in the national team A. But voting only closes in October, and much could happen until then. The former Sporting defender played a total of 40 games for the Paris team that ended and wore a corner jersey six times.
Also worth noting is the presence of Fábio Carvalho, a Portuguese international under-21 who saw a dream season at Fulham, a club coached by Marco Silva in the Premier League and who transferred him to Liverpool. In addition, the nominees include five Portuguese players who work for foreign clubs.
Nominees include three young men who recently won the Youth League for Benfica – Henrique Araujo (20), Diego Morera (17) and Cher Endour (17) – who have not had a few minutes on the Luz club’s first team. – First account 135 minutes in five games; Only 22 minutes in the second game and no presence at all in the third. The same is true of Rodrigo Ribeiro from Sporting, who has a total of 40 minutes in the I-League. Most popular is Francisco Conceição, son of coach Sérgio Conceição, from FC Porto, who played in 33 games for the first team, including three in the Champions League.
Favorite workaholic
With a few last-minute exceptions, the biggest favorite to win this year’s trophy is Eduardo Camvinga, 19, an Angolan-born but French-born Real Madrid player., Who made his debut for the Merengues last season and finished the season as the Spanish champion and winner of the Champions League, playing a total of 40 games. No other player on this list of 100 names has such a rich curriculum, so it will be difficult for anyone to overtake him.
Camwinga’s life story is of a difficult childhood. Sophia and Celestino, their parents, fled the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and were assisted in a refugee camp in Mykonje, northern Angola. There he was born (11-10-2002) and lived until his parents were able to move to Lille (France), where Eduardo became a player.
The Golden Boy Trophy has been awarded since 2003. The winner of the first edition was Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Wart, who was representing AJax at the time. Messi was another winner, in the 2005 edition, he was still making his first foray into Barcelona. Most recently, in 2017, Kylian Mbappé and the Norwegian international Earling Holland were crowned.
It is the responsibility of 40 journalists to select the best player under the age of 21 to play in Europe, which indicates their top 5.. There are 10 points for the first. Seven for the second, five for the third, three for the fourth and one for the fifth. To compete, the player must have been born after 1 January 2001 and must have played for one of the top division clubs in Europe.
Like Ballon d’Or and FIFA’s The Best, the award is usually given to a forward or midfielder. The only exception to this rule came in the 2018 vote, when the trophy was presented to Ajax’s Dutch central defender Matthias de Ligt.
Last year, the Spanish pediatrician from Barcelona, Jude Bellingam of Borussia Dortmund, collected 318 votes against 119, gaining the biggest advantage for second place.
nuno.fernandes@dn.pt
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