Lamine Yamal crowned his outstanding year with the prize for the best Under-21 player in Europe. Barcelona was well represented at the awards, as Vicky Lopez won the Golden Girl trophy, while Txiki Begiristain scooped the accolade for the best director.
The trio didn’t attend the ceremony as Barcelona deemed it challenging logistic-wise. Instead, all three spoke from a screen at the awards night, which was organised in Turin’s National Automobile Museum.
Outlet Relevo, reported that Barcelona’s players didn’t attend to due ‘Due to various logistical disagreements with the Italian sports newspaper, organiser of the event, which have upset the Catalan club.’
Yamal, who played a big part in Spain’s Euro 2024 victory, succeeds Jude Bellingham who won the men’s award last year.
How the Golden Boy voting works
Representatives of 50 media across Europe can vote and each first pick gives a player 10 points, seven for second, five for third, three for fourth and one for fifth.
The 17-year-old Barcelona forward accumulated 488 of the possible 500 points in the end, which is a record tally in the men’s category.
Second came Kobbie Mainoo with 114 points, who saw his impact at Man United rewarded.
His teammates Alejandro Garnacho (9th) and Leny Yoro (17th) also made the final ranking, while their neighbours at Manchester City were represented by Savinho (7th) and Rico Lewis (13th), while their former academy player Jamie Gittens also made the list with a 19th place.
Evangelos Marinakis, who owns Nottingham Forest among other clubs, received a Career Award, while Jorge Mendes was named as Best Agent. Toni Kroos won the Golden Player Man, the prize for best player over 21.
Yamal, who became the fourth player of Barcelona to win the Golden Boy after Lionel Messi (2005), Pedri (2021) and Gavi (2022). In October this year Yamal also won the Kopa Trophy, the best young player award at the Ballon d’Or.
2024-12-17 12:18:14
