There are 10 Portuguese players in the list of 100 nominees for the Golden Boy 2022 award, a trophy presented by the Italian newspaper Tuttosport, which distinguishes the best under-21 footballer to play in Europe every year. The winner, who will replace Pedri (Barcelona), will be known only in November, a month after the list was reduced to 20. To date, only two Portuguese have won the award: Renato Sanchez (2016) and João Felix (2019).
Portuguese candidates Rodrigo Ribeiro (Sporting), Thiago Thomas (Stuttgart), Nuno Mendes (PSG), Joelson Fernandes (Basel), Henrique Araujo (Benfica), Fabio Silva (Wolverhampton), Fabio Carvalho (Fulham / Liverpool). (Benfica), Francisco Conceicao (FC Porto) and Paulo Bernardo (Benfica). Also note that there are two foreign players playing in Portugal: Cher Ndour (Benfica) and Jan Couto (Sp. Braga).
Of all the candidates, 19-year-old Nuno Mendes seems to have the best chance of winning the trophy in the first round, as he managed to entrust himself to Paris-Saint Germain, considering only the end of the season. staff (became the champion of France) and the national team A. But the voting closes only in October, and there may be many things before that. The former Sporting defender played a total of 40 games for Paris Saint-Germain last season and wore a corner six times.
It is also noteworthy that Fábio Carvalho, a Portuguese U-21 player, spent a season at Fulham, the club that coached Marco Silva and promoted him to Liverpool. In addition, among the candidates are five Portuguese players working in foreign clubs.
Among the candidates are three children who recently won the Youth League for Benfica – Henrique Araújo (20), Diego Moreira (17) and Cher Ndour (17) – who have played little or no time in Luz’s first team. – the first 135 minutes in five games; the second is only 22 minutes before the game, and the third is not at all. The same thing happens with Rodrigo Ribeiro from Sporting, who has only 40 minutes in the First League. Francisco Conceicao, the son of coach Sergio Conceicao from FC Porto, is more famous, having played 33 games for the first team, including three in the Champions League.
to my beloved Camaving
With the exception of the last few minutes, the biggest favorite to win this year’s trophy is 19-year-old Eduardo Camavina, a Real Madrid player born in Angola but a French citizen.He made his Merengues debut last season, making 40 appearances and finishing the season as the Spanish champions and Champions League winners. It will be very difficult for anyone to overtake this list of 100 names, as no other player has such a rich curriculum.
Camavinga has a memorable life story with a difficult childhood. The parents, Sofia and Celestino, escaped the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and found help in a refugee camp in the northern Angolan city of Miconje. It was there that he was born (11-10-2002) and lived until his parents were able to move to Lille, France, where Eduardo played.
The Golden Boy Cup has been awarded since 2003. The winner of the first issue was the then Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart, who represented AJax. Messi was one of the winners, in 2005 he was still taking his first steps in Barcelona. Kilian Mbappe and Norwegian Erling Haaland were recently crowned in 2017.
The selection of the best U-21 player to play in Europe is the responsibility of 40 journalists, and they mark the top 5.. Points for the first are 10 points. The list is given seven points for the second, five points for the third, three points for the fourth and one point for the fifth. To participate in the tournament, a player must be born after January 1, 2001 and play for a club that plays in the top divisions of Europe.
As with the Ballon d’Or and FIFA’s Best Awards, the award is usually given to a striker or midfielder. The only exception to this rule was in a vote in 2018, when the trophy was presented to Ajax’s Dutch center-back Matthijs de Ligt.
Last year, Barcelona’s Pedri Dortmund from Borussia Dortmund won the second place with 119 votes to 318 votes.
nuno.fernandes@dn.pt
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