Concerning individual awards for football, there is the prestigious “Ballon d’Or” for experienced players as well as the Golden Boy which is interested by new talents. It rewards players under 21. And the nomination of this year is very rich.
40 Future rising stars were nominated for the Golden Boy 2013 Award. Among them, can be found only one African. Richmond Boakye, striker of Elche in Spain currently on loan at Juventus . This summer, he finished bronze medalist at the U20 World Cup that sacred France. Precisely the Hexagon aligns 7 players ( Digne, Pogba , Kondogbia , Yaya Sanogo, Varane , Thauvin and Niang ) .
We can also see the Germano – Ivorian Serge Gnabry of Arsenal. The Golden Boy is an award bestowed by the Italian sports newspaper Turin Tutto Sport. The winner of this year’s award will succeed to the Spanish Isco (in the picture at the left) of Real Madrid .
The 40 players nominated:
Richmond Boakye ( Sassuolo / ITA then Elche / ESP – Ghana)
Bruma (Sporting / POR and Galatasaray / TUR – Portugal)
Emre Can (Bayern Munich / ALL and Leverkusen / ALL – Germany)
Sebastian Cristoforo ( Sevilla / ESP – Uruguay)
Lucas Digne ( Lille / FRA then Saint-Germain/FRA Paris – France )
Julian Draxler (Schalke / ALL – Germany)
Yannick Ferreira Carrasco (Monaco / FRA – Belgium)
Viktor Fischer (Ajax / P- B – Denmark)
Fred (Shakhtar Donetsk / UKR – Brazil)
Serge Gnabry (Arsenal / ANG – Germany)
Mauro Icardi (Sampdoria / ITA and Inter / ITA – Italy)
Juan Manuel Iturbe (Hellas Verona / ITA – Argentina)
Adnan Januzaj (Manchester United / ENG – Belgium / Albania)
Jesé (Real Madrid / ESP – Spain)
Geoffrey Kondogbia ( Sevilla / ESP and Monaco / FRA – France )
Mateo Kovacic (Dinamo Zagreb / CRO and Inter / ITA – Croatia)
Diego Laxalt (Inter / ITA and Bologna / ITA – Uruguay)
Nicolas Lopez (Roma / ITA then Udinese / ITA – Uruguay)
Romelu Lukaku (West Bromwich Albion / ENG and Chelsea / ANG then Everton / ENG – Belgium)
Adam Maher (Alkmaar / PB and Eindhoven / PB – Netherlands)
Lazar Markovic (Partizan Belgrade / SER and Benfica / POR – Serbia)
Marquinhos (Roma / ITA then Paris Saint-Germain/FRA – Brazil)
Aleksandar Mitrovic (Partizan Belgrade / SER and Anderlecht / BEL – Serbia)
Matija Nastasic (Manchester City / ENG – Serbia)
Mbaye Niang (AC Milan / ITA – France)
Kenneth Omeruo (The Hague / PB and Chelsea / ANG – Nigeria)
Alex Oxlade- Chamberlain (Arsenal / ANG – England)
Brayan Perea (Lazio / ITA – Colombia)
Paul Pogba (Juventus / ITA – France)
Juan Fernando Quintero (Pescara / ITA and Porto / POR – Colombia)
Josip Radosevic ( Hajduk Split / CRO and Naples / ITA – Croatia)
Rafinha (Barcelona / ESP and Celta Vigo / ESP – Spain)
Ante Rebic ( Spalato / CRO and Fiorentina / ITA – Croatia)
Yaya Sanogo (Auxerre / FRA and Arsenal / ANG – France)
Florian Thauvin (Bastia / FRA and Marseille / FRA – France)
Tiago Llori (Sporting / POR and Liverpool / ENG – Portugal)
Oliver Torres (Atletico Madrid / ESP – Spain)
Raphael Varane (Real Madrid / ESP – France)
Vilhena (Rotterdam / P -B – Netherlands)
Vitinho (CSKA Moscow / RUS – Brazil)