Here are all the clubs the Golden Boy award winners plays in 2024/2025

All the football leagues in Europe have now started their season of 2024/2025 and the summer transfer window has also closed in most countries, so we will now take a look at where all the Golden Boy winners are playing the coming season.

Golden Boy winners that have changed clubs

It was a quite busy transfer window this summer and actually eight of the 22 previous award winners have changed club ahead of the new season.

Kylian Mbappé to Real Madrid

The biggest and most noticed transfer of an award winner was of course Kylian Mbappé’s transfer from Paris Saint-Germain to Real Madrid. The transfer was announced as ready in the beginning of June but Mbappé officially became a Real player on the first of July 2024. He has signed a five year contract that will expire on the last of June 2029, but unless something special happens it feels like Mbappé is in Real Madrid to stay for the main part of his remaining career.

Matthijs de Ligt to Manchester United

2018 years winner Matthijs de Ligt spent two seasons in Bayern Munich but has now left for Manchester United. The Red Devils expectations are that he is the man to stabilise the clubs somewhat shaky defense, and he signed a contract that expires on the end of June 2029. The deal was ready mid-August, and the reported transfer fee is between 45-50 million euros, depending on different add-ons.

João Felix to Chelsea

The forever super-talent João Felix that Atlético Madrid paid a huge sum for back in 2019 has been on loan spells to both Chelsea and Barcelona during his year in Madrid, but finally Chelsea have now signed him on a permanent deal. This might be seen as a bit surprising considering Felix didn’t have a brilliant loan session in Chelsea the last time and the club then decided not to buy him over. Obviously they have changed their minds now regarding him and he now has a contract with Chelsea that reaches all the way to end of June 2031.

Renato Sanches to Benfica

The 2016-year winner, Portuguese Renato Sanches has once again been sent off on loan from Paris Saint-Germain. Last season he spent in the Italian club Roma but now he is back to where he had his big breakthrough – Benfica. He will spend the whole season in his home country and is expected to return to PSG in the end of June next summer. Hopefully for Sanches he will find his game again when he is back on home ground, and Benfica will then activate their option-to-buy clause for him.

Raheem Sterling to Arsenal

A few months ago not many people expected to see Raheem Sterling playing for Arsenal, but after Chelsea’s new head couch Enzo Maresca had made it clear that Sterling was not part of his plans, Arsenal was quick to sign the former (and perhaps again to be) English international on a yearlong loan. The loan deal is according to reports a strict loan with no option to buy clause.

Anthony Martial – no club

After nine seasons in Manchester United, except for half a year on loan to Sevilla, Anthony Martial has now finally left the club. Even though he has so much talent, and also had some very good performances during periods in United, he never fully managed to have that big breakthrough in the club. The now 28-year-old Frenchman is currently without club. At the moment there are no strong reliable rumours about where he might end up, and reports say that his wage demands are big issue for many interested clubs.

Mario Balotelli – no club

The Italian striker Mario Balotelli, who claimed the award back in 2010, is once again without club after his contract with Turkish club Adana Demirspor expired. Balotelli has recently turned 34 and he is unlikely to be signed by any club in the bigger European leagues. Strongest rumours suggest a move to Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates or Palermo in Italian Serie B, but at this moment he is still a player without a club.

Alexandre Pato – no club

Alexandre Pato was on his third spell in the Brazilian club São Paulo up to the end of last year, but since January he is without club. Pato was considered one of the most talented forwards in the world back in his days with Milan but has been kind of on a downhill ride since then. It is not unlikely that Pato’s career can be considered to be over now, he just turned 35 and is probably not high on any bigger clubs wanted list.

Award winners staying in their club

Next we list all the Golden Boy award winners that remains in their club. Note that these are the players that are still actively playing football.

• The latest winner Jude Bellingham is staying put in Real Madrid where he has a contract until the summer of 2029. He was recently injured but is expected to be back in a few weeks
• Barcelona’s Gavi has been injured since November last year but is expected to be back on the pitch in October best case. His contract with Barca runs until last of June 2026
• Gavi’s teammate Pedri, who won the award the year before Gavi, also has a contract with Barcelona until the end of June 2026
• Erling Haaland have started the season splendid, scoring two hat-tricks in the first four Premier League games for Manchester City, and is strongly heading for his third straight top scorer title in EPL already. The Norwegian seem to be unstoppable at the moment. Fortunately for Manchester City they have him tied up for another three years almost, as his contract expires on the 30th of June 2027.
• The old Real Madrid player Isco signed for Real Betis in the summer of 2023, and has a contract with the Sevilla club until the end of June 2027
• German midfielder Mario Götze. winner of the award 2011, has been in Eintracht Frankfurt for two seasons and has a contract over this season and one more.
• And finally Lionel Messi, the oldest still active Golden Boy award winner, is nowadays playing in Inter Miami in the American MLS. Messi is at the moment out because of an ligament injury in his right ankle but is expected to be back in action during September, although all is uncertain at the moment.

Retired winners but active as football managers

Apart from the award winners that are still active as players, that we just listed, we also have three players that still are working actively within football as managers

Cesc Fàbregas - head coach of Como

The former Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea star Cesc Fàbregas is nowadays the head coach of Italian Como, newly promoted to Serie A. Fàbregas was the assisting manager last season but has ahead of this season formally been appointed head coach for the club.

Wayne Rooney - manager for Plymouth Argyle

Wayne Rooney was the second winner of the Golden Boy award back in 2004 and after his career ended in 2021 he has been busy coaching. He has been the head coach of Derby, D.C. United in MLS and Birmingham before but is now the manager of the EFL Championship club Plymouth. He signed the contract with the club in May this year, a contract that will expire in the end of June 2027, although a contracts expire date rarely really mean anything when it comes to managers.

Retired for good

To complete the list of all winners we also list the ones that neither play actively nor have continued their career within football as managers.

• Manchester City’s legendary striker Sergio Agüero is not doing much these days after being forced to end his career while in Barcelona due to heart issues.
• The Brazilian Anderson is kind of famous four being the “worst winner" of the Golden Boy award, being the one that least deserved it that is. There has been report indicating that he has been working as an assistant coaches in the Turkish club Adana Demirspor, his last club as an active player, but he is not part of teams managers list so that information is a bit unclear.
• The very first winner of the award, the Dutchman Rafael van der Vaart, retired from football back in 2018, and is today mostly active as a pundit on Dutch television.