Ten Portuguese players shortlisted for Golden Boy 2019 award
Ten of the 100 players put on the Golden Boy 2019 shortlist are Portuguese, making Portugal one of the most well-represented nations on the entire list.
The award, which was won by Portugal’s Renato Sanches in 2016, is presented by Tuttosport.
Only England, with 17, and France, with 12, have more players on the shortlist than Portugal, who find themselves with more representatives for the highly-acclaimed award than Italy (who have 9), The Netherlands (6), Spain (5) and Germany (3).
Half of the ten Portuguese players on the shortlist are from Benfica, including £100million-rated forward Joao Felix, defensive midfielder Florentino Luis and central midfielder Gedson Fernandes. All three are very much integral to this current Benfica team.
Joao “Jota” Filipe is another Benfica forward on the list, while striker Jose Gomes is the fifth Portuguese Benfica player on the list.
Porto have the one representative - centreback Diogo Queiros, who recently won the UEFA Youth League with his club.
The other 4 Portuguese players that make the cut are based outside the country and are currently on the books of Manchester United (Diogo Dalot), Watford (Domingos Quina), Lille (Rafael Leao) and Mesaque Dju (West Ham).
Benfica also have another representative on the list - goalkeeper Mile Svilar of Belgium, although Porto have no other representatives and Sporting CP have none at all.
There is some surprise that Diogo Leite, who also won the UEFA Youth League as Queiros’ centreback partner and even featured on a few occasions for Porto, didn’t make the cut, as well as Wolves’ Ruben Vinagre who, despite featuring much more heavily in the English Premier League than both Mesaque Dju and Domingos Quina, isn’t on the shortlist.
In any case, Portugal can be very pleased to have so many representatives on the list, and it is testament to the work Benfica are doing on investing in their youth academy.
You can vote for who you think should win the award via the link provided HERE.
Renato Sanches, who won the award back in 2016. Photo Author: Кирилл Венедиктов. License Link.
