Golden Boy winners list: from Rafael van der Vaart to Désiré Doué, and the 2026 finalists

The Golden Boy is the award for the best under-21 player at a European club. It was launched by the Italian newspaper Tuttosport in 2003, and it judges players on a calendar year, which means the second half of one season and the first half of the next.

Rafael van der Vaart won the first Golden Boy in 2003, when he was at Ajax. The most recent winner is Paris Saint-Germain forward Désiré Doué, who won it in 2025. The 2026 winner will be announced in November, and the 25 finalists were revealed on 5 October 2026.

How is the Golden Boy chosen?

For the 2026 award, the shortlist starts with the European Golden Boy Top 100, a ranking of the best under-21 players at European clubs compiled by Transfermarkt. The 25 finalists are the top 20 from its October update plus five wild cards, given to players ranked between 21st and 100th. An international jury of 50 journalists from across Europe then picks the winner from those 25.

A player can win the award only once. The organisers’ rules say that a player cannot win it twice, which is why Lamine Yamal, the 2024 winner, is not among the 2026 finalists even though he was second in the October 2026 Top 100.

Golden Boy winners list

Year	Player	Team
2003	Rafael van der Vaart	Ajax
2004	Wayne Rooney	Everton and Manchester United
2005	Lionel Messi	Barcelona
2006	Cesc Fàbregas	Arsenal
2007	Sergio Agüero	Atlético Madrid
2008	Anderson	Manchester United
2009	Alexandre Pato	Milan
2010	Mario Balotelli	Inter and Manchester City
2011	Mario Götze	Borussia Dortmund
2012	Isco	Málaga
2013	Paul Pogba	Juventus
2014	Raheem Sterling	Liverpool
2015	Anthony Martial	Monaco and Manchester United
2016	Renato Sanches	Benfica and Bayern Munich
2017	Kylian Mbappé	Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain
2018	Matthijs de Ligt	Ajax
2019	João Félix	Benfica and Atlético Madrid
2020	Erling Haaland	Borussia Dortmund
2021	Pedri	Barcelona
2022	Gavi	Barcelona
2023	Jude Bellingham	Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid
2024	Lamine Yamal	Barcelona
2025	Désiré Doué	Paris Saint-Germain

Golden Boy records

Barcelona have the most winners, with four: Lionel Messi (2005), Pedri (2021), Gavi (2022) and Lamine Yamal (2024). Manchester United, with Wayne Rooney (2004), Anderson (2008) and Anthony Martial (2015), and Borussia Dortmund, with Mario Götze (2011), Erling Haaland (2020) and Jude Bellingham (2023), have three each, counting the years a winner split between two clubs.

Spain is the country with the most winners, five, ahead of France with four. Of the 23 winners so far, 12 have been forwards and 10 midfielders. Matthijs de Ligt, then at Ajax, is still the only defender to win it, in 2018.

Lamine Yamal is the youngest winner. He was 17 years and 137 days old when he won in 2024, beating the record Gavi had set two years earlier at 18 years and 77 days.

Some great players never won it. Five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo is the best-known example.

The 2026 Golden Boy finalists

The 25 finalists for 2026 come from 14 countries, with Spain the best represented (four players). Barcelona have three finalists, more than any other club, and the youngest is Bayern Munich’s Lennart Karl, born on 22 February 2008.

Player	Club	Born
Pau Cubarsí	Barcelona	2007
Ayyoub Bouaddi	Manchester City	2007
Warren Zaïre-Emery	Paris Saint-Germain	2006
Yan Diomande	Real Madrid	2006
Luka Vušković	Brighton	2007
Victor Froholdt	Porto	2006
Myles Lewis-Skelly	Arsenal	2006
Rayan	Bournemouth	2006
Jorrel Hato	Chelsea	2006
Lennart Karl	Bayern Munich	2008
Estêvão	Chelsea	2007
Endrick	Real Madrid	2006
Junior Kroupi	Bournemouth	2006
Gianluca Prestianni	Benfica	2006
Konstantinos Karetsas	Borussia Dortmund	2007
Saïd El Mala	Köln	2006
Jon Martín	Real Sociedad	2006
Marc Bernal	Barcelona	2007
Kerim Alajbegović	Juventus	2007
Finn Jeltsch	Stuttgart	2006
Charalampos Kostoulas	Brighton	2007
Joane Gadou	Borussia Dortmund	2007
Franco Mastantuono	Fiorentina	2007
Rodrigo Mora	Roma	2007
Xavi Espart	Barcelona	2007

The first 20 are listed in their order in the October 2026 Top 100, leaving out Lamine Yamal. The last five are the wild cards.