Started in 2003, the Golden Boy award has featured some incredibly impressive talents, but not all of those talents have gone on to justify winning the trophy over the years.
We’ve seen some generational stars start their journey at this very point, becoming destined to become the world’s best, yet we’ve also seen ultimate transfer flops take hold of the award.
These days, European football is filled with some names that should be guaranteed to take this current era by storm.
The likes of Lamine Yamal, Desire Doue, Estevao and Arda Guler have all been nominated for the 2025 award and all of those players will be hoping to avoid following the same path as some of the last 10 players to win the award.
10 2024: Lamine Yamal
Whilst it’s tough to decide which path most winners are going to take, it’s easy with Yamal. The Barcelona star is going to go straight to the very top. It’s easy to argue that he’s there already, having finished second in the 2025 Ballon d’Or.
Now, he looks destined to become the first-ever player to win the Golden Boy award in back-to-back years. At just 18 years old, there simply isn’t a better young player on the planet than La Masia’s latest wonderkid.
Since winning the award in 2024, the Spain international has only become even better, even more confident and even likelier to take football’s vacant crown in place of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
9 2023: Jude Bellingham
It’s easy to forget just how young Jude Bellingham is. He has that natural leadership way beyond his years. Yet, it was only two years ago that he was picking up the Golden Boy award after a sensational debut campaign for Real Madrid.
His rise didn’t come to a crashing halt, either. Although injuries are currently handing him a disrupted start to life under Xabi Alonso at the Bernabeu, the Englishman remains one of the most important players at the club and will no doubt make his mark under his new manager.
At just 22 years old, Bellingham is a Champions League winner who has already featured at the World Cup and European Championship for the Three Lions. With the 2026 World Cup on the horizon, he’s also expected to win his place back for the first time under Thomas Tuchel.
8 2022: Gavi
Football has a scheduling problem and one of the biggest victims to that schedule has been Gavi. Barcelona discovered their next best thing in 2022 when the midfielder won the Golden Boy award, but they simply did too much too soon.
The Spaniard was rarely rested when he first broke through in La Liga and has since suffered significant knee injuries. What was football’s newest Golden Boy in 2022 is now a star frustrated by injury setbacks at just 21 years old.
There’s still time for Gavi to work his way back to full fitness, but his problems should act as a stark warning for UEFA and FIFA as they add more fixtures to the football calendar.
7 2021: Pedri
Onto another Barcelona star, Pedri picked up the Golden Boy award in 2021 and has not looked back since. Whilst he’s also suffered a number of injuries since breaking through in Spain, the 22-year-old is now enjoying the best form of his career and is being recognised by many as one of the best midfielder’s that European football has to offer.
Like Yamal, Pedri is just getting started. He’s one that looks destined to become a generational talent four years on from winning such a prestigious award.
6 2020: Erling Haaland
Erling Haaland was unstoppable in 2020 and is inevitable in 2025. He looked destined to reach the peak of European football when he won the Golden Boy award at Borussia Dortmund and now looks likely to win a Ballon d’Or one day at Manchester City.
Since winning the award, the Norway international has joined City, won the Premier League, broke the record for goals in a single Premier League campaign and won a historic treble with the Citizens. He is one of, if not the best striker in the world.
5 2019: Joao Felix
It’s not all Haalands and Yamals on this list. A certain Joao Felix picked up the award in 2019 just months after sealing a move worth as much as £113m to Atletico Madrid.
The La Liga giants went all in one what was one of the best young players in the world. Now, six years on, he plays his football at Saudi Pro League side Al-Nassr.
Atletico Madrid
34
131
Chelsea
40
11
Barcelona
44
10
AC Milan
21
3
From Chelsea and Barcelona all the way to AC Milan, it’s never clicked for Felix. The most damning statistic of all is that the failed wonderkid never even reached the 20-goal mark for any of those aforementioned clubs after Atletico Madrid. Simply put, he peaked when he won the Golden Boy award in 2019.
4 2018: Matthijs de Ligt
Matthijs de Ligt is a difficult one to judge. Whilst he’s now part of a struggling Manchester United side under Ruben Amorim, he still went on to seal a move to Juventus and then Bayern Munich after picking up the award in 2018 with Ajax.
The Dutchman was part of a generation of young players that very nearly made history under Erik ten Hag in the Netherlands, as they reached the Champions League semi-final. Ultimately, it wasn’t to be, but the defender did enough for his reputation to earn a big move elsewhere alongside several others.
De Ligt hasn’t endured the same struggles as Felix since the Golden Boy honour, but he is not the best defender in the world that many expected him to be by this stage.
3 2017: Kylian Mbappe
Like Haaland earlier in this list, Kylian Mbappe was destined to win the Golden Boy from the start of his Monaco career. Picking up the award at Paris Saint-Germain not long after sealing a loan move to the French giants which would become a £166m one year later, Mbappe stood tall as the best young player in the world.
Since then, although he is yet to be recognised with a Ballon d’Or, the Frenchman has fulfilled his prophecy and is now arguably Real Madrid’s most important player. After initially making a slow start in Spain, the 26-year-old has discovered his best form and may well be back in conversation for football’s highest honours soon enough.
2 2016: Renato Sanches
Who remembers Renato Sanches? Swansea City fans certainly will. The midfielder took Europe by storm as Portugal won Euro 2016 and went on to win the Golden Boy award as a result. Bayern Munich thought they had stolen a generational player from Benfica when he was accepting the award, but injuries soon struck and a move to Wales soon came calling.
No matter his struggle for form and injuries, Swansea couldn’t believe their luck when they signed Sanches on loan in 2017, only to suffer relegation and watch on as he failed to make his mark.
Beyond the English side, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and AS Roma also attempted to revive the midfielder’s career, but he ultimately never rediscovered his best form. Now, at 28 years old, he plays his football on loan from PSG at Greek side Panathinaikos.
1 2015: Anthony Martial
“Welcome to the Premier League, Anthony Martial”, is what Martin Tyler famously exclaimed when the Frenchman left Martin Skrtel bamboozled to score a stunning debut goal for Manchester United against Liverpool. At that point, Old Trafford and the rest of the Premier League believed a generational star had arrived.
A star boy quickly became a struggling star, however, and that debut goal remains Martial’s most memorable moment in a Man United shirt. As the Red Devils hired and fired Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and others, the Frenchman failed to truly make his mark. Now, he plays for Mexican side Monterrey.
That Ballon d’Or clause is beginning to look a tad awkward, isn’t it?
