Four English players are on the 40-strong shortlist to be crowned as Europe’s best young player.
The prestigious Golden Boy award, first established by the Italian newspaper Tuttosport, was won by Raheem Sterling last year, now with Manchester City but then with Liverpool, and boasts Lionel Messi (2005), Sergio Agüero (2007) and Mario Götze (2011) among its former winners.
Despite still being eligible for the award, which is for players under 21, Sterling has not been shortlisted this time but there is a place for his former team-mate at Anfield, Jordon Ibe. He is joined by the Tottenham teenager Dele Alli, Ruben Loftus-Cheek of Chelsea and the injured Manchester United left-back Luke Shaw.
Six other Premier League-based players are included, among them Watford’s Chelsea loanee Nathan Ake, Héctor Bellerín of Arsenal, Manchester United’s Anthony Martial and Kelechi Iheanacho of Manchester City.
The winner of the award, which is voted for by journalists from 30 newspapers around the world, will be announced in December. Wayne Rooney is the only other English winner, in 2004.
The full shortlist:
Premier League: Nathan Ake (Watford; on loan from Chelsea), Dele Alli (Tottenham), Héctor Bellerín (Arsenal), Jordon Ibe (Liverpool), Kelechi Iheanacho (Manchester City), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea), Anthony Martial (Manchester United), Divock Origi (Liverpool), Luke Shaw (Manchester United), Adama Traoré (Aston Villa).
La Liga: Marco Asensio (Espanyol), Zakaria Bakkali (Valencia), Ángel Correa (Atlético Madrid), Danilo Barbosa (Valencia), Munir El Haddadi (Barcelona), Alen Halilovic (Barcelona), Sandro Ramírez (Barcelona),
Bundesliga: Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich), Dahoud Mahmoud (Borussia M’gladbach), Francisco Rodríguez (Wolsfburg), Pierre-Emile Hojberg (Schalke), Adnan Januzaj (Borussia Dortmund; on loan from Manchester United), Max Meyer (Schalke),
Serie A: Ricardo Kishna (Lazio), Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (Lazio), Alessio Romagnoli (Milan)
Ligue 1: Mario Pasalic (Monaco; on loan from Chelsea), Adrien Rabiot (PSG), Adama Traoré (Monaco)
Turkish Super Lig: Jason Denayer (Galatasaray; on loan from Manchester City)
Dutch Eredivise: Anwar El Ghazi (Ajax Amsterdam), Gaston Pereiro (PSV), Tonny Vilhena (Feyenoord)
Portuguese Primeira Liga: Goncalo Guedes (Benfica), Ruben Neves (Porto)
Kazakhstan Premier League: Nemanja Maksimovic (Astana)
Croatian Prva Liga: Marko Pajca (Dinamo Zagreb)
Belgian Jupiler Pro league: Moses Simon (KAA Gent), Youri Tielemans (Anderlecht)
Serbian SuperLiga: Andrija Zivkovic (Partizan Belgrade)
