Ryan Gravenberch still has a chance to win the prestigious Golden Boy Award. The Bayern Munich midfielder, who played at Ajax until last summer, is part of the final shortlist of twenty players who could receive the award for the best talent in the world. Brian Brobbey and Xavi Simons were still on the list with forty players, but have now dropped out.
The Italian sports newspaper Tuttosport annually organizes the presentation of the Golden Boy Award for the best football player up to the age of 21. Last year Pedri managed to win that prestigious honorary title and this year the Barcelona midfielder is also among the contenders. The only Dutchman who can still be found in the ‘top twenty’ is Gravenberch. The Bayern Munich playmaker made his debut at Ajax at the age of sixteen and caused a furore there, after which he moved to southern Germany last summer.
Another well-known name on the shortlist is Wilfried Gnonto. The Leeds United attacker was still on Feyenoord’s scouting list this summer and the Italian would even have been close to a switch to De Kuip. In the end, Gnonto did not exchange Zurich for South Rotterdam, but for Leeds. Where the striker survived the final selection, Simons and Brobbey did not. The two heard a month ago that they were part of the ‘top forty’, but in the final ranking they will have to make do with a listing between place 21 and forty.
Whether Gravenberch will actually win the prize remains to be seen. The list of contenders includes Ansu Fati, Pedri and Gavi of Barcelona, Eduardo Camavinga of Real Madrid and Jude Bellingham of Borussia Dortmund. Rafael van der Vaart (2003) and Matthijs de Ligt (2018) are the only two Dutch winners of the prize for the time being.
The twenty players who still have a chance to win the Golden Boy Award: Fati, Gavi and Pedri (all Barcelona), Nico (Barcelona/Valencia), Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund), Karim Adeyemi (Borussia Dortmund/RB Salzburg), Antonio Silva (Benfica), Camavinga (Real Madrid), Fabio Carvalho (Liverpool /Fulham), Gnonto (Leeds United/Zurich), Gravenberch (Bayern Munich/Ajax), Josko Gvardiol (RB Leipzig), Fabio Miretti (Juventus), Jamal Musiala (Bayern Munich), Nuno Mendes (Paris Saint-Germain), Giorgio Scalvini (Atalanta), Benjamin Sesko (RB Salzburg), Mathys Tel (Bayern Munich, Stade Rennais), Destiny Udogie (Udinese) and Nicola Zalewski (AS Roma).