6 of the Best Young Football Players in the World
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Ballon d’Or was a prestigious award that was given from 2010 to 2015 to the top football player in the world based on votes from national team captains and coaches as well as international journalists. The current FIFA award, Best FIFA Men’s Player, has been presented annually since the discontinuation of the Ballon d’Or.
Similarly, the world’s preeminent football player under the age of 21 has been recognized with the Golden Boy award every year since 2003. Past winners include Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney, Mario Balotelli, and Paul Pogba.
The following are six of the best 21-and-under players in the world, including three of whom have already won the Golden Boy.
1. João Félix
2019 Golden Boy winner João Félix scored 20 goals in 43 matches across six different competition levels in 2018–19. The 20-year-old Portuguese striker has already played six games on the senior men’s national team since June 5, 2019, and previously scored four goals in 10 matches on the Under-21 team.
Félix was acquired by Atletico Madrid from SL Benfica in September 2019 for a $144.6 million USD transfer fee, a club record. He has since played in 16 La Liga matches and scored a pair of goals. Moreover, he scored two goals in four Champions League matches and became the youngest-ever player for Atletico to score at that level. He is also the youngest-ever player to score a hat trick in the Europa League.
He received 332 votes for Golden Boy 2019, finishing ahead of Jadon Sancho and Kai Havertz, who garnered 157 and 75 votes, respectively.
2. Matthijs de Ligt
Matthijs de Ligt finished fifth in 2019 Golden Boy voting, but the Dutch defender won the award the year prior while playing with Ajax Amsterdam in the Netherlands’ first-tier league Eredivisie. He was the youngest-ever captain of his club and also holds the distinction as the youngest player since 1945 to play on the Dutch senior men’s national team; he was just 17 years old when he made his debut with the team on March 25, 2017.
Moreover, despite the fact he plays the center-back defense position, he managed to score a goal in his debut with Ajax Amsterdam and became the second-youngest player in team history to accomplish that feat. He was acquired by the Italian club Juventus FC in July 2019 for a transfer fee of $97.4 million.
3. Kylian Mbappé
The recipient of the Golden Boy in 2017, Kylian Mbappé only turned 21 on December 20, 2019, but he has established himself as one of the best strikers in the world.
A native of Paris, France, Mbappé was acquired by Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in Ligue 1 in July 2018 for a transfer fee of $165.3 million and has wasted little time in proving his value to the French club. He scored 44 goals in 49 matches with PSG and the French senior men’s national team in 2019. This total ranked him third among players in Europe, behind Robert Lewandowski and Messi. Mbappé scored six goals in his final four matches in 2019 and scored two in his first two games of 2020.
Mbappé emerged as an international superstar at the 2018 World Cup. He scored two crucial goals during France’s second-round victory over Argentina and added another in its 4–2 final match victory over Croatia. He is the youngest player to score in a World Cup Final since 1958, when Pelé did so at 17 years old.
4. Jadon Sancho
The runner-up for Golden Boy 2019, Jadon Sancho is a 19-year-old native of London, England, who played for Manchester City’s U-18 program before being selected by Borussia Dortmund of Bundesliga in Germany for a transfer fee of $8.93 million. This is viewed as an incredible investment by the German club — Sancho’s play has improved so much since then that he is now valued at $222 million. Moreover, he is one of the highest-paid players in Germany, earning $230,000 per week.
Sancho has 10 goals in 16 Bundesliga matches in 2019–20 as well as two goals in six Champions League matches. He has been compared to Neymar in the past and is already worth more than the Brazilian star.
5. Alphonso Davies
While 20-year-old Canadian striker Alphonso Davies has played limited minutes in 14 Bundesliga matches since being acquired by Bayern Munich from Vancouver Whitecaps FC for a transfer fee of $11.4 million, he was nonetheless a contender for the Golden Boy 2019.
Prior to the transfer, Davies scored eight goals in 31 matches with Vancouver. He debuted with the team in 2016 at 15 years old, becoming the third-youngest player in Major League Soccer (MLS) history. He also garnered the highest transfer fee in MLS history.
6. Gianluigi Donnarumma
Perhaps the best goalkeeper under the age of 21 in the world, Gianluigi Donnarumma is already an established veteran despite his age. The Italian has played more than a dozen matches for the senior national team and 170 for AC Milan. In 19 matches of the 2019–20 season, he conceded only 25 goals.
