Manchester United teenager Marcus Rashford has been named in Tuttosport’s 40-man shortlist for the Golden Boy award.
Rashford isn’t the only player aged 21 and under from the Premier League in the running to win the coveted award that lists previous winners including Paul Pogba, Lionel Messi and last year’s winner Anthony Martial.
The Italian newspaper has also listed Dele Alli, Kelechi Iheanacho, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Demarai Gray, Marko Grujic, Alex Iwobi and Leroy Sane from Premier League sides, although they face stiff competition from Bundesliga trio Renato Sanches, Kingsley Coman and Ousmane Dembele.
According to WhoScored.com, of players aged 21 and under to have featured in at least three games in Europe’s big five leagues this season Dembele has the highest rating (7.62).
The full list: Dele Alli (Tottenham), Marco Asensio (Real Madrid), Leon Bailey (Genk), Riechedly Bazoer (Ajax), Gabriel (Monaco), Julian Brandt (Bayer Leverkusen), Carlos Fernandez (Sevilla), Andreas Christensen (Gladbach), Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich), Ante Coric (Dinamo Zabgreb), Amadou Diawara (Napoli), Mahmoud Dahoud (Gladbach), Danilo (Benfica), Moussa Dembele (Celtic), Ousmane Dembele (Dortmund), Gianluigi Donnarumma (AC Milan), Breel Embolo (Schalke), Gabriel Barbosa (Inter), Aleksandr Golovin (CKSA), Goncalo Guedes (Benfica), Demarai Gray (Leicester), Marko Grujic (Liverpool), Alen Halilovic (Hamburg), Kelechi Iheanacho (Man City), Alex Iwobi (Arsenal), Viktor Kovalenko (Shakhtar), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea), Lucas Hernandez (Atletico), Emanuel Mammana (Lyon), Nathan (Vitesse), Olivier Ntcham (Genoa), Marcus Rashford (Man Utd), Renato Sanches (Bayern), Jairo Riedewald (Ajax), Ruben Neves (Porto), Antonio Sanabria (Real Beits), Leroy Sane (Man City), Jonathan Tah (Bayer Leverkusen), Youri Tielemans (Anderlecht), Almamy Toure (Monaco)
My call is Sanches. He won domestic titles with Benfica and Euro with Portugal.