Joe Gomez and Dominic Solanke nominated for 2017 Golden Boy award
Joe Gomez and Dominic Solanke have been nominated for the 2017 Golden Boy award.
The award is given by sports journalists through the Italian outlet Tuttosport to determine the brightest young prospect in European football.
Players such as Lionel Messi and Wayne Rooney have previously won the prize, which has generally been a good indicator of future success since its creation in 2003.
Raheem Sterling is the only previous Liverpool recipient of the Golden Boy, having won it in 2014. Renato Sanches won the award last year after a bright season with Benfica and an outstanding European Championship with Portugal.
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Solanke and Gomez are unlikely to win the award, not having played many minutes in the second half of 2016 and first half of 2017. Solanke was mostly kept under wraps by Chelsea due to his contract impasse, while Gomez was sidelined with an ACL injury and eased back slowly by Jürgen Klopp.
Their inclusion in the shortlist, however, shows how highly rated they are by some of the top football journalists.
Both English youngsters are set to kick on this season under Klopp, with Solanke having featured heavily in pre-season and Gomez amounting Premier League and Champions League minutes early in the campaign.
Other Premier League players nominated for the award are Everton’s Dominic-Calvert Lewin, Manchester City’s Gabriel Jesus, Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford, and Tottenham’s Kyle Walker-Peters.
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Jesus is a contender to win the award, but the heavy favorite is former Liverpool target Kylian Mbappé who enjoyed an elite season with Monaco before joining French giants Paris Saint-Germain.