Two Bundesliga youngsters in the final shortlist for the Golden Boy award | OneFootball

Eliesse Ben Seghir and Jobe Bellingham are in the 25-man shortlist for the 2025 Golden Boy award. Both players joined Bundesliga clubs in the summer on permanent transfers.

However, they’re struggling for minutes in their respective clubs. Ben Seghir only started a couple of Bundesliga games for Bayer Leverkusen. At the same time, Borussia Dortmund’s midfielder also has a similar stat as he had to settle for substitute appearances in each of the last four encounters.

The England U21 international helped Sunderland to a Premier League promotion last term via the playoffs. Monaco’s former winger featured regularly for Morocco in their successful World Cup qualifying campaign.

The shortlist was compiled with 50 journalists across Europe naming 20 players. The presenter Tuttosport then added five wild cards, which was how Jobe Bellingham made the list.

Lamin Yamal won the award in 2024, which ruled him out of this year’s competition because of the rule that limits players to winning it once. Jobe’s brother, Jude, won the winner back in 2023.

Mario Götze (Dortmund), Renato Sanches (Bayern), and Erling Haaland (Dortmund) also won this award as Bundesliga players over the years. The former is the only German to win the prize, which was established by Italian sports newspaper Tuttosport in 2003.

Full list of Golden Boy nominations:

Pau Cubarsí (Barcelona and Spain)Désiré Doué (Paris Saint-Germain and France)Dean Huijsen (Real Madrid and Spain)Kenan Yildiz (Juventus and Türkiye)Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal and England)Warren Zaïre-Emery (Paris Saint-Germain and France)Arda Güler (Real Madrid and Türkiye)Franco Mastantuono (Real Madrid and Argentina)Ethan Nwaneri (Arsenal and England)Jorrel Hato (Chelsea and Netherlands)Geovany Quenda (Sporting Lisbon and Portugal)Estêvão (Chelsea and Brazil)Leny Yoro (Manchester United and France)Senny Mayulu (Paris Saint-Germain and France)Nico O’Reilly (Manchester City and England)Eliesse Ben Seghir (Bayer Leverkusen and Morocco)Victor Frøholdt (Porto and Denmark)Lucas Bergvall (Tottenham Hotspur and Sweden)Archie Gray (Tottenham Hotspur and England)Mamadou Sarr (Strasbourg and France)Jobe Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund and England)Francesco Pio Esposito (Inter Milan and Italy)Rodrigo Mora (Porto and Portugal)Giovanni Leoni (Liverpool and Italy)Aleksandar Stanković (Club Brugge and Serbia)