Mbappe, Dembele lead Golden Boy nominees
Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele have been included on the 25-man shortlist for the 2017 Golden Boy, the annual prize handed out to the best under-21 player in Europe.
The award, run by Italian newspaper Tuttosport and voted for by a panel of journalists, is likely to be a two-horse race between Mbappe, who starred in Monaco’s Ligue 1 title-triumph last season before joining PSG on an initial loan deal, and new Barcelona forward Dembele.
Dembele moved to Barca from Borussia Dortmund in August for a fee that is set to rise from a basic €105million but saw his progress curtailed by a hamstring injury, suffered in the weekend win at Getafe that could see him miss three and a half months.
There is no place on the list for last year’s winner Renato Sanches, who endured a miserable time at Bayern Munich before joining Swansea City on loan, but the 2016 runner-up Marcus Rashford of Manchester United is nominated.
Other contenders for the award that will be announced in October include Gabriel Jesus, Kasper Dolberg, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Christian Pulisic, Youri Tielemans and Real Madrid duo Borja Mayoral and Theo Hernandez.
