The Chelsea chiefs will see the Golden Boy shortlist as justification for their project to hoover up as much young talent as possible.

The Golden Boy is an award established by Tuttosportthat is given by sports journalists to a young male footballer playing in Europe perceived to have been the most impressive during a calendar year. All nominees must be under the age of 21 and play in the top tier of a European nation.

Previous winners include Lionel Messi (2005), Kylian Mbappe (2017) and Jude Bellingham (2023), while the 2024 award went to Spain international Lamine Yamal, who’s not on the 2025 shortlist as no player can win it twice.

Of the 25 players included on the shortlist, 20 have ‘qualified’ automatically via their ranking on the Football Benchmark Index, which takes performances on the pitch, playing time and the strength of the teams each player plays for into account. Another five ‘wildcard’ picks – chosen by the Tuttosport editorial staff – have been included to complete the 25-player shortlist.

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Ten of the nominees hail from the Premier League and Chelsea have the joint-most players in contention, along with Real Madrid and PSG.

Brazilian wonderkid Estevaosurely has the best chance of any of the Blues (maybe any Premier League player) to actually claim the gong, but Jorrel Hato and Mamadou Sarr, who’s on loan at sister club Strasbourg, are also in contention. Add?Geovany Quenda – who will join the club from Sporting at the end of the season – and the Blues have Real Madrid beat.

Myles Lewis-Skelly will have felt more confident at the end of last season than he does now having lost his place in the Arsenal team to Riccardo Calafiori, while Ethan Nwaneri will presumably just be happy to not see new kid on the Emirates block Max Dowman vying for the prize with him.

Tottenham have as many representatives as their bitter north London rivals as Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray have both made the grade, while Leny Yoro, Giovanni Leoni and Nico O’Reilly carry the hopes of Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City respectively.

2025 Golden Boy nominees

Eliesse Ben Seghir (Bayer Leverkusen)

Lucas Bergvall (Tottenham)

Pau Cubarsi (Barcelona)

Desire Doue (PSG)

Victor Froholdt (Porto)

Archie Gray (Tottenham)

Arda Guler (Real Madrid)

Jorrel Hato (Chelsea)

Dean Huijsen (Real Madrid)

Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal)

Senny Mayulu (PSG)

Franco Mastantuono (Real Madrid)

Ethan Nwaneri (Arsenal)

Geovany Quenda (Sporting CP)

Nico O’Reilly (Man City)

Mamadou Sarr (RC Strasbourg, on loan from Chelsea)

Estevao Willian (Chelsea)

Kenan Yildiz (Juventus)

Leny Yoro (Manchester United)

Warren Zaire-Emery (PSG)

Wild cards

Jobe Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund)

Giovanni Leoni (Liverpool)

Rodrigo Mora (Porto)

Francesco Pio Esposito (Inter)

Aleksandar Stankovic (Club Brugge)