Pranav Nair
Manchester United wonderkids Mason Greenwood and Amad Diallo nominated for the Golden Boy award
According to the club’s official website, Manchester United duo Mason Greenwood and Amad Diallo have both been nominated for the prestigious Golden Boy award.
The award is given to the best Under-21 player in one of Europe’s top leagues. Italian outlet Tuttosport presents the prize but votes are garnered from other magazines and publications namely L’Equipe, Bild, The Times and Marca.
Started in 2003, the award has been conferred to some of the best players in world football. Some of its previous winners include Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero and Kylian Mbappe. United target Erling Haaland won the accolade last year.
Both Greenwood and Diallo have had their moments at United and look set for a bright future at the Theatre of Dreams. The former scored 12 goals and assisted six more in 52 appearances and enjoyed a strong close to the 2020/21 campaign. (h/t Transfermarkt)
Diallo in comparison had fewer shots at glory. However, he showed enough glimpses of himself to suggest he will be a familiar name in the years to come. The Ivorian scored a key goal for United AC Milan and recently found the net with a stoppage-time winner for his country against Burkina Faso.
So far, 100 players have been included in the list. This number will be whittled down in the months to come. It can be argued that Greenwood has a better chance at success than Diallo, at least as far as this accolade is concerned.
Two United players have won the prestigious award in the past. Wayne Rooney won it in 2004 while Anthony Martial repeated the trick in 2015. The former went on to become the greatest goalscorer in United history while the latter is still finding his feet in a redshirt.
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The last Englishman to win the award was Raheem Sterling in 2014. Whether Greenwood will become the newest one to do so remains to be seen. As for Diallo, no African player has won the award before and a win for him would make history.
