Marcus Rashford and Dele Alli lead a host of young Premier League stars who have been nominated for the 2016 Golden Boy award.
“?”?Italian news publication Tuttusport“? revealed that the Manchester United striker and Tottenham midfielder were two of eight starlets from England’s top flight who are up for the prestigious prize, as the list of all 40 potential winners was released on Thursday.
The pair are joined by Arsenal’s Alex Iwobi, Manchester City duo Kelechi Iheanacho and Leroy Sane, Leicester’s Demarai Gray, Chelsea pair Ruben Loftus-Cheeck and Andreas Christensen and Liverpool’s Marko Grujic in receiving nominations.
Pick a Golden Boy winner from this list. I think Rashford has got to be in without a shout. Renato Sanches maybe? pic.twitter.com/SyGxGOkRYN
Other contenders for the award include Bayern Munich wonderkids Renato Sanches and Kingsley Coman, as well as Mahmoud Dahoud (Gladbach), Marco Asensio (Real Madrid), Moussa Dembele (Celtic), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Milan) and Ruben Neves (Porto).
Previous winners of the prize include Manchester United’s Anthony Martial (2015), Borussia Dortmund’s Mario Gotze (2011), Barcelona’s Lionel Messi (2005) and Man United’s Wayne Rooney (2004).
The Golden Boy award was established by Tuttosport in 2003, and sees sports journalists nominate stars, under the age of 21, who ply their trade in any one of Europe’s top footballing tiers.
Around 30 leading sports journalists from reputable outlets such as Marca, The Times, Bild, De Telegraaf and Tuttosport then vote on who will be crowned the winner for each calendar year.
Each journalist can vote for five players for the award, ranked one to five, based on a points system where their number one choice of the five is handed 10 points, number two given seven, number three handed give, number four given three and number five handed one.
Football fans also have the opportunity to cast their own vote over who should be crowned Golden Boy of 2016, and can do so “?by clicking here.
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