ATLETICO MADRID ATTACKING midfielder Joao Felix has been named the 2019 Golden Boy, after a strong start to his career at Wanda Metropolitano.
Felix joined Atletico for £113 million (€126m) back in July, after rising through the ranks at Benfica over the previous five years of his career.
The 20-year-old contributed 15 goals and seven assists to Benfica’s cause last season, and has picked up from where he left off at the start of the 2019-20 campaign in Spain.
Felix has been a standout performer for Atletico, racking up 13 appearances across all competitions in total and scoring three goals.
The Portuguese has now picked up this year’s Golden Boy award, ahead of Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho and Red Bull Salzburg forward Erling Haaland.
Felix has joined a prestigious list of past winners which includes Lionel Messi, Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe, with last year’s award given to Juventus defender Matthijs de Ligt.
Sancho finished second in the final voting for the Tuttosport distributed prize, after helping the team fight for the Bundesliga title last term while also earning his first caps for England’s national team.
Bayer Leverkusen playmaker Kai Havertz came in third, one spot ahead of Haaland, who has earned plenty of plaudits for his goalscoring exploits in the Champions League with Salzburg.
De Ligt ended up fifth, while Barcelona and Manchester City teenagers Ansu Fati & Phil Foden secured sixth and seventh respectively, with the latter the Premier League’s sole representative in the top ten.
Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, Roma, Nicolo Zaniolo and PSV forward Donyell Maylen also made the cut.
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
Hope he gets a run in the 1st team soon enough. Koop obviously rates him very highly.
@Daniel Donovan: Klopp*
To be honest even though what the young lad has achieved is a credit to himself and his family ,I’d be holding back on these articles to give the lad a chance.theres no doubt he’s living the dream but he’s not there yet.
@james lee: exactly… get back to us when he gets 20 league appearances under his belt… fair play to him all the same I hope he makes it
Classif jounral to make any sort of an Irish sportsperson talents back to the GAA when it has no relevance #somereporting
@Gavin O’Donovan: It’s a human interest story. This is common with celebrities. Plenty of coverage of Harrison Ford’s piloting. Nothing to do with his acting… Masterson is a nuanced human being beyond his football. The fact he’s good at gaelic is part of that. Get over it.
@Alan J. McKenna: well said Alan
He can make the bench for Liverpool but not the Irish u21 team. Something wrong someplace
Time will tell. If he handles the ball, shoots over the bar, injects veterinary hormones and gets involved in handbags on the pitch every 10 minutes for LFC then he’s probably a GAA player.
Good man Gerry Kearns. fair play to the young lad hope makes it .
You would wonder what professional sporting careers some of the top GAA players in the country would have if they played a different sport. Some might say it’s a wasted talent
@Alana: may not make it in other sports
@bmul: did you read the article ? Niall Quinn, Kevin Moran, Zebo, Tomás O Leary the list is endless of players who played GAA and made it as pro athletes in other sports.
“If he was playing chess”