Golden Boy Shortlist

diarm

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Best of luck to Jessie and the rest of our young lads up for the award...
 

SilentWitness

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Sancho was robbed last year and he will probably lose out again this year to Haaland.
 
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RC89

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What's the age limit for Golden Boy? How is Lingard in there at 27? Nevermind how absolute crap he is.
 

villain

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Lingard's name is obviously photoshopped, it's a different font ffs
 

SilentWitness

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What's the age limit for Golden Boy? How is Lingard in there at 27? Nevermind how absolute crap he is.
He isn't. It's one of those shit Lingard is still a kid jokes.
 

Adam-Utd

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A pretty nice list of players there! forward it to Woodward and the team please, time to go shopping.
 

unplayable

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1. Haaland
2. Sancho
3. Greenwood
4. Davies
5. Fati
Isn't the award for the calender year 2019?
If so there is no chance of Haaland winning. He hasn't done anything in the first half of the year.
 

Jaxa

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Isn't the award for the calender year 2019?
If so there is no chance of Haaland winning. He hasn't done anything in the first half of the year.
Umm ... I mean he did score about 24 goals for Salzburg including a UCL hattrick and brace from Aug 2019
 

fps

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Ryan Sessegnon could end up another that's "young" and coming through at 24. I hope not, loved him at Fulham, hasn't found his best position yet. Then again he's only just 20, fingers crossed for him.
 

unplayable

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Umm ... I mean he did score about 24 goals for Salzburg including a UCL hattrick and brace from Aug 2019
I'm aware, but a strong end to the year ist not enough to beat Sancho who has been great throughout the year.

Just checked a Dortmund forum out of curiousity and nobody puts Haaland ahead of Sancho. Not that it means anything. I wouldn't have given it to Joao Felix last year either.
 

SilentWitness

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Not a chance, Sancho will easily win.
I think he should too but I feel like the media buzzes off Haaland right now more than it does anyone else.

Also on wiki it says : The Golden Boy is an award that is given by sports journalists to a young footballer playing in Europe perceived to have been the most impressive during a calendar year (two halves to two separate seasons).

EDIT: (Read this wrong, woops).
 
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broccoli

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I'd pick Haaland then Ansu Fati as the best players on that list. Fati is the closest thing to Messi in terms of overall potential that I've seen in recent years. Pace, technique, vision, dribbling, cool finishing. Very curious how he develops.
 

limerickcitykid

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I think he should too but I feel like the media buzzes off Haaland right now more than it does anyone else.

Also on wiki it says : The Golden Boy is an award that is given by sports journalists to a young footballer playing in Europe perceived to have been the most impressive during a calendar year (two halves to two separate seasons).

So it's looking at the 19/20 season, not just the year 2019.
Your bolded sentence literally means just the year 2019.
 

Thaumaste

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Sancho, Haaland and Davies in the top 3.
Agree with this, and to be honest I would have Sancho and Davies some way ahead, since both have made legitimate claims this year to be seen as top 3 in their positions full-stop, let alone taking age into account. Haaland, despite the hype, and great though I think he is and will be, is not in the top 3 forwards in the world this year for me.
 

Schmeichel's Cartwheel

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Haaland, Sancho or Davies.

Fati could be a dark horse but he’s more likely for next year.

1. Haaland
2. Sancho
3. Greenwood
4. Davies
5. Fati
How can you justify Greenwood over Davies? I think you might be looking at this with the red tinted specs haha
 

Mettaur

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Probably one of Davies, Sancho or Haaland. Nobody else has the kind of profile.
 

Schmeichel's Cartwheel

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He is the 3rd highest scoring teenager in Europe.
Davies is an influential player for a team that won their league and is challenging for the champions league. The majority of Greenwood’s goals have been scored against lower league level opposition. I’m sorry, but even as a United fan & a Greenwood fan, he doesn’t belong above Davies.

Greenwood has 5 goals in 25 league games as a forward, Davies has 3 in 28 league games as a left back. Davies clearly impacts Bayern’s games far greater than Greenwood does United’s right now.
 

romufc

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Davies is an influential player for a team that won their league and is challenging for the champions league. The majority of Greenwood’s goals have been scored against lower league level opposition. I’m sorry, but even as a United fan & a Greenwood fan, he doesn’t belong above Davies.

Greenwood has 5 goals in 25 league games as a forward, Davies has 3 in 28 league games as a left back. Davies clearly impacts Bayern’s games far greater than Greenwood does United’s right now.
I am not disputing Davies inclusion. I don't particularly think Greenwood will be in the top 5. It will most likely be between Sancho and Haaland anyway.
 

limerickcitykid

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It’s a bit odd when you see Garner in the same list as Sancho, considering how established the latter is. Is that a joke too?
Sancho is an outlier and why he’ll win or come second. Do you think there are 100 Sancho’s knocking about to fill up the list?

It’s like asking why the 30th place person on the Ballon D’Or list is on the same list as Messi considering how better Messi is.
 

MyOnlySolskjaer

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Sancho is an outlier and why he’ll win or come second. Do you think there are 100 Sancho’s knocking about to fill up the list?

It’s like asking why the 30th place person on the Ballon D’Or list is on the same list as Messi considering how better Messi is.
No but my point is that there is quite a massive divide in the list in terms of players that play at senior level and those that have just touched the surface of U23 football.

Sancho is not the only one on the list who has had a significant level of exposure, there is Haaland, Davies, Camavinga, Aarons, Ferran Torres to name a few that are border-line pivotal players in their respected teams. I'd say the tier below that is players that have at least looked promising in senior football with lesser minutes. Then there's U23 footballers.
 

dbs235

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Ryan Sessegnon could end up another that's "young" and coming through at 24. I hope not, loved him at Fulham, hasn't found his best position yet. Then again he's only just 20, fingers crossed for him.
Definitely. I think he had Spurs written all over him and yet I'm not sure it was a good move really. Though if he settles on left-back then he doesn't have much competiton from Rose and Davies anymore.
 

balaks

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Definitely. I think he had Spurs written all over him and yet I'm not sure it was a good move really. Though if he settles on left-back then he doesn't have much competiton from Rose and Davies anymore.
Early days for the kid - think he will settle as a wing-back.
 

hasanejaz88

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Sancho
Davies
Haaland

Definitely the top 3 performing teenagers this season. I would argue for Sancho and Davies ahead of Haaland because Haaland was playing in a lower level league for half of the season. Sancho and Davies have been superb this season for their respective teams.
 

Samid

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Sancho
Davies
Haaland

Definitely the top 3 performing teenagers this season. I would argue for Sancho and Davies ahead of Haaland because Haaland was playing in a lower level league for half of the season. Sancho and Davies have been superb this season for their respective teams.
This award is for the calendar year 2020. Haaland hasn't played lower leagues this year. Not that it matters anyway, last year he almost finished 3rd last year despite playing in a 'lower level league' throughout the year:

Golden Boy ranking: The voting results in detail

1 JOÃO FÉLIX , Portugal, Atlético Madrid, 332 votes
2 JADON SANCHO, England, Borussia Dortmund, 175 votes
3 KAI HAVERTZ, Germany, Bayer Leverkusen, 75 votes
4 ERLING HAALAND, Norway, Red Bull Salzburg, 74 votes
5 MATTHIJS DE LIGT, Netherlands, Juventus, 71 votes


Isn't the award for the calender year 2019?
If so there is no chance of Haaland winning. He hasn't done anything in the first half of the year.
Last year it was awarded in late November. Why on earth would an award called 'Golden Boy 2020' and is awarded at the end of 2020 be an award for the calendar year 2019?

If it was for 2019 they wouldn't be releasing a 100 man 'longlist' halfway through 2020 with a bunch of kids that showed nothing in 2019. The purpose of this 'longlist' is to create hype around the award and make it easy for bookies to know which players are in contention. The list always features lots of kids that haven't even broken into the first team in case any of them have a Haaland-esque second half of the calendar year and put themselves in contention.

Haaland's first half of 2019 was taken into account at the last year's award, that's why he only finished 4th. For this year's award he has to be the favourite at this stage but a lot can happen in the next 4-5 months. This time last year @Damien was claiming De Ligt was dead certain to win it which proves 5 months is a long time in football.