The race for the 2026 Golden Boy award is entering its final stage. Organised by Tuttosport since 2003, the award is presented annually to the best player aged under 21 playing for a European club.
For this year’s edition, the 25 finalists were announced at Villa Fürstenberg in Mestre, near Venice. The list comprises the top 20 players from the October update of the European Golden Boy Top 100 – a ranking compiled in collaboration with Transfermarkt – plus five ‘Wild Cards’ invited by Tuttosport.
Having already featured in the initial list of 100 candidates unveiled in July, Warren Zaïre-Emery is now among the final 25 contenders for the trophy, set to succeed Paris Saint-Germain's own Désiré Doué, the 2025 winner!
Pau Cubarsí (FC Barcelona)
Marc Bernal (FC Barcelona)
Ayyoub Bouaddi (Manchester City)
Warren Zaïre-Emery (Paris Saint-Germain)
Yan Diomande (Real Madrid)
Endrick (Real Madrid)
Luka Vušković (Brighton)
Victor Froholdt (FC Porto)
Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal)
Rayan (Bournemouth)
Eli Junior Kroupi (Bournemouth)
Jorrel Hato (Chelsea)
Estêvão (Chelsea)
Gianluca Prestianni (Benfica)
Konstantinos Karetsas (Borussia Dortmund)
Saïd El Mala (Cologne)
Jon Martín (Real Sociedad)
Kerim Alajbegovic (Juventus)
Finn Jeltsch (Stuttgart)
Lennart Karl (Bayern Munich)
Charalampos Kostoulas (Brighton) (Wild Card)
Joane Gadou (Borussia Dortmund) (Wild Card)
Rodrigo Mora (AS Roma) (Wild Card)
Xavi Espart (FC Barcelona) (Wild Card)
Franco Mastantuono (Fiorentina) (Wild Card)
The winner will be chosen by an international jury comprising 50 European journalists and announced in November before the trophy ceremony, at a date yet to be decided, in December, in Turin, Italy.
