The Golden Boy award - best football player under 21 years

The Golden Boy award is an award given to the best player under 21 years old that plays in any of the European top tier leagues. The award was first handed out in 2003 and the very first of all winners of the award was the Dutch player Rafael van der Vaart.

The award did not get much attention from the beginning but over the years its popularity have grown and is now perhaps the most important award among the young football players.

Latest news and articles

Latest winner of the Golden Boy award - Lamine Yamal

Lamine Yamal is the winner of the latest award in 2024. Yamal is by far the youngest winner of the award as he was only 17 years and 137 days old when it was announced that he won it.

Previous winners

History of the Golden Boy award

The Golden Boy award was created by the Italian sports newspaper Tuttosport in 2003. Today there are several high profile football newspaper around Europe that has a saying about the award, you can read more about the award and its history here.