Nine Premier League players including five England stars nominated for Golden Boy award

The Golden Boy nominations for 2025 are out, and there is plenty of Premier League and England representation.

There is no Lamine Yamal because once you have won this award, you can’t win it again, meaning someone new will claim the award.

And there is a chance that a Premier League star will be claiming the title.

Desire Doue is surely the favourite though after playing a huge role in Paris Saint-Germain winning the Champions League.

The French forward scored twice in the 5-0 demolition of Inter Milan in the final as well.

But should the judges opt for someone else, the Premier League and England are well represented.

The five English players nominated are Ethan Nwaneri, Jobe Bellingham, Nico O’Reilly, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Archie Gray.

And the non-English Premier League stars are Estevao Willian, Leny Yoro, Giovanni Leoni, Jorrel Hato and Lucas Bergvall.

There are also a couple of former and future top-flight players involved as well.

Dean Huijsen is in after a stellar campaign at Bournemouth before moving to Real Madrid, while Mamadou Sarr and Geovany Quenda will join Chelsea, with both out on loan.

The winner will be selected by a jury of 50 international journalists, with the winner being announced in November in Turin.

Who will win the Golden Boy award?

Just looking at the list, it is hard to look past Doue.

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The 20-year-old scored 15 goals and provided another 16 assists for PSG last season as they won everything.

He finished 14th in the Ballon d’Or, which puts him ahead of anyone on this list, so he will be the one to beat.

Barcelona centre-back and Spain star Pau Cubarsi looks a good shout as well.

The defender has established himself as a key part of Hansi Flick and Luis de la Fuente’s team, which at 18 is no mean feat.

Do the English players stand a chance?

In truth, probably not.

Of the five nominated, Gray was the only one to win a major trophy, claiming the Europa League with Tottenham Hotspur.

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And while he played during that campaign, it was more through necessity due to injury in many ways, finding himself at centre-back.

Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri racked up good minutes for Arsenal, but it would be hard to argue that they made more of an impact than Doue.

O’Reilly had a breakthrough season at City and has become Pep Guardiola’s first-choice left-back this year, but there probably isn’t enough there to justify him winning it.

And Bellingham helped Sunderland win the Championship play-offs and has joined Borussia Dortmund, where he has struggled for minutes.