The shortlist for the 2025 Golden Boy Award has been revealed, with Spanish football seeking its fifth consecutive winner. However Real Madrid will like their chances of wrestling back the award from Barcelona this season.
Tuttosport’s Golden Boy award has been dominated by Spanish football in recent years, although primarily by Barcelona and Real Madrid. The award is given to the top player under the age of 21, and last year Lamine Yamal was the winner. He was preceded by Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham following his debut campaign at the Santiago Bernabeu, and Gavi and Pedri picked up the awards in their breakout campaigns at Barcelona in 2022 and 2021.
Four entrants from Real Madrid and Barcelona
While Barcelona have dominated the award over the last four years, the Blaugrana have just one candidate this year, a decline from recent years, with Pau Cubarsi flying the flag for Barcelona. Meanwhile Real Madrid have three entrants, albeit Franco Mastantuono and Dean Huijsen are there primarily for their exploits with Bournemouth and River Plate, before they joined Los Blancos. Their third entrant is Arda Guler, as he looks to assert himself in Xabi Alonso’s midfield.
Ci siamo!
I 25 finalisti al titolo di Golden Boy Absolute Best!
Chi sarà il prossimo European Golden Boy?#GoldenBoyAwards | #GoldenBoy2025#GBFBIndex | #FootballBenchmark#tuttosport pic.twitter.com/f621eO2sRv— Tuttosport (@tuttosport) October 15, 2025
Tuttosport adds ‘wild card’ entrants
The list is composed of 20 players nominated for the award, and has been composed by the Football Benchmark Index, who composed an algorithm to establish the best 20 candidates. However Tuttosport have added five ‘wild card’ entrants, to avoid any possible injustices created by the algorithm. Those five wildcards are Jobe Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund), Francesco Pio Esposito (Inter), Rodrigo Mora (Porto), Giovanni Leoni (Liverpool) and Aleksandar Stankovic (Brugge).
Jorge Mendes met with Lamine Yamal for two hours today. Then, Deco met with the agent. @sport
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) October 15, 2025
Notably, the Premier League has nine players nominated for the award, while France and England are the best-represented nations, with five players each. The favourite for the award is Paris Saint-Germain and France’s Desire Doue, who lifted the Champions League this year, while Kenan Yildiz of Juventus and Estevao of Chelsea will also be in the running.
