The Golden Boy is awarded by sports journalists to the most impressive young footballer, playing in Europe, over the previous year. All nominees for the award must be under the age of 21 and play in a European nations top tier. Established by Italian newspaper Tuttosport in 2003, the awards previous winners reads like a whos-who of great footballers. 2003 - Rafael van der Vaart | Ajax The original winner of the award never came close to fulfilling the potential that he flashed back at Ajax. His time at Real Madrid was somewhat of a failure, in fact his best form came in a short spell at Tottenham Hotspur. 2004 - Wayne Rooney | Everton Wayne Rooney is fast becoming a Premier League great. Having won it all with Manchester United, Rooney continues to fire in the goals and has raised his game since becoming club captain this season. Despite some views that Rooney has never reached his full potential after the talent he showed as a youth, he is still a very accomplished all-rounder and will go down as one of Englands greats. 2005 - Lionel Messi | Barcelona The most successful Golden Boy winner, one of the most successful footballers of all time, Lionel Messi surpassed all expectations and became a Barcelona and footballing legend. The 27-year-old has won all there is to win at club level and broken numerous records along the way, as well as reaching the World Cup final with Argentina this summer. 2006 - Cesc Fàbregas | Arsenal One of the best midfielders in the world now, Cesc Fabregas now just needs more trophies at club level to ensure that he is remembered as one of the greats. A consistent performer for Arsenal, his national team and now for Chelsea after a slightly underwhelming three years at Barcelona. 2007 - Sergio Agüero | Atlético Madrid Now regarded as one of the best strikers in the world, Sergio Aguero is building a terrific career for himself with a superb goal record and great flair and ability. Despite being hampered by injuries Aguero has scored 66 league goals for City in only 86 appearances. 2008 - Anderson | Manchester United Its hard to remember the bright start that Anderson had to his United career as his form has tailed off so much that United are now looking to shift him on in the next few transfer windows. Currently on loan at Fiorentina, he made 70 appearances for Manchester United but only scored five goals. 2009 - Alexandre Pato | AC Milan Pato was a rising star in 2009 but since then his career hasnt panned out the way it was expected to, and the Brazilian striker is arguably the least successful winner of the Golden Boy award. He now plays for Sao Paulo and has nine goals in 24 appearances. 2010 - Mario Balotelli | Manchester City Balotelli won the Golden Boy award ahead of David de Gea and Jack Wilshire, who Balotelli claimed hed never even heard of. When questioned about the previous winners Mario said that only Messi was slightly better than him, all the rest were behind him. 2011 - Mario Götze | Borussia Dortmund Back when Gotze was still plying his trade in Dortmund, the future World Cup winner was regarded as the best youngster in Europe after inspiring BVB to the Bundesliga title. Gotze, now 22, has established himself as a key player in Bayern Munichs stacked midfield as well as a German superstar. 2012 - Isco | Màlaga Beating out Stephen El-Shaarway and Thibaut Courtois, Isco was compared to Andres Iniesta and being touted as the leader of the next generation of great Spanish midfielders. Isco had helped Malaga to the final 16 of the Champions League and to 4th in La Liga in the 2011-12 season. 2013 - Paul Pogba | Juventus The ex-Manchester United player had a brilliant season causing many to wonder how the club allowed him to leave. A year later Pogba had established himself as one of the best young players in the game and was rumoured with £40 million moves away from Italy, not bad for someone they signed on a free. 2014 - Raheem Sterling | Liverpool Sterling won the award after a terrific season with Liverpool but the Golden Boy award is by-no-means an indicator of future success. Balotelli, Pato and Anderson were all terrific youth players but have not made the leap into superstardom. With contract talks opening though, an award of this caliber will only strengthen Sterlings bargaining position. Interestingly, only three of the award winners (besides Sterling) are still with the club that helped them win the award - Messi, Anderson and Pogba.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 05:33:54 +0000
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