These are the favourites to win the Golden Boy Award 2025

The football leagues season 2024/2025 has now come to an end in all major European leagues, and it is time to take a closer look at the candidates to win the Golden Boy Award 2025.

The most natural main candidate to win would of course be the Spanish wonderkid Lamine Yamal, but as the award cannot be won twice by the same player he is not an option this year. Without him as an option it is instead a very open race, there is no absolute clear favourite as we had last year (when Lamal won).

The award is decided in the end of the year, usually late November or possibly early December, which means that we are almost halfway there. However, this year is also time for the new version of FIFA Club World Cup, not a new competition but a new format, trying to squeeze out some extra money for themselves, which gives some players an extra chance to showcase themselves and possibly strengthen their chances of winning. This especially since most of the favourites and other players that have a realistic chance of winning plays for clubs that participate in this tournament.

We will start by listing the players that we believe have the best chance of winning the Golden Boy Award 2025, followed by a few players that could be contenders, if they were to have an absolute great start of the 2025/2026 season.

Most likely candidates to win 2025

As we see it, there are three players that at the moment are the most likely candidates to win, and these are (without any particular ranking):

Pau Cubarsí, Spain

Three of the four last winners of the award have something in common, they all play for FC Barcelona. Considering that it is maybe not that surprisingly that the club has a strong contender in their team this year as well, and the player in question is Pau Cubarsí.

The now 18-year-old Spanish defender was only 17 years old when the season 2024/2025 started, but despite his young age he was not only a starting player right from the beginning of the season, but he was also perhaps their most important cog in the defence line all through the season.

A disadvantage for Cubarsí’s is that he is a defender, as there has only been one defender that have grabbed the award before, when Matthijs de Ligt won in 2018. Furthermore, the fact that there are so many Barca winners might be another disadvantage. It shouldn’t be, but subconsciously it might have an impact in the minds of the judges deciding the award winner.

João Neves, Portugal

Our next candidate is also a player who plays on a position that rarely winners of awards like these plays at. We are now talking about the Portuguese 20-year-old defensive midfielder João Neves.

Neves joined Paris Saint-Germain ahead of this season and he has right from the beginning become a crucial part of the young PSG team that won the UEFA Champions League this year. He played in almost every match this season and has been a starting player in all their most important games. Everyone was aware of his skills and potential when he joined the club from Benfica, but not everyone believed he would become such an important player this fast, but he has really proven himself to be a strong contender for the award.

Désiré Doué, France

We finish off our favourite candidates with another Paris Saint-Germain player - Désiré Doué. He was signed as a replacement for Kylian Mbappé when he left for Real Madrid after last season, perhaps not as a direct replacement but rather as a future one.

Contrary to the two previous players the Frenchman was not a starting player when all through the season, he started off by mostly coming on as a substitute and did not score many goals during the first half of the season. However, the longer the season went on, the more chances he got as a starting player, and both the goals and assists started to come more frequently.

So why do have him on the list here as one of the main players to win the award? The reason is of course the UEFA Champions League final where he was absolutely brilliant, With his two goals and one assist he was awarded “Man of the Match” and was one of the main reasons why PSG totally crushed Inter in the final.

Before the UCL final he would perhaps be more of a possible contender, but if he continues to prove himself during the FIFA Club World Cup and the beginning of next season, we do believe he has a great chance to grab the award this year.

Other contenders for the award

We do strongly believe that the winner of the award is one of the three players we have listed, but here are some other possible contenders:

• Warren Zaire-Emery, France - playing for Paris Saint-Germain
• Sávio, Brazil – playing for Manchester City
• Rico Lewis, England – playing for Manchester City
• Arda Güler, Turkey - playing for Real Madrid
• Kenan Yildiz, Turkey – playing for Juventus
• Alejandro Garnacho, Argentina – playing for Manchester United

All these players, except Zaire-Emery, played for clubs that had a less great season, and to win the award it is next to crucial to play in a club that win important titles. If the players do not make a difference for their team that leads them to titles, it is hard to gain the proper attention that is required to win any type of awards such as the Golden Boy Award.

So, with that said, for any of these players to win the award they have to have an extraordinary start of next season, or possibly be the star players in this summers FIFA Club World Cup (and perhaps that isn’t enough, considering this tournament might not get as high status as FIFA is hoping for).