Désiré Doué was crowned 2025’s Golden Boy on Tuesday, earning the status of Europe’s best player under the age of 21. The Paris Saint-Germain forward enjoyed a glittering 2024–25 but arguably only won the award because Lamine Yamal was ineligble.
Yamal’s status as one of the best footballers on the planet is not in doubt. The Barcelona and Spain prodigy only became a legal adult over the summer, but he placed second in the recent 2025 Ballon d’Or standings—and plenty thought he deserved to win it.
Yet the list of nominations for the 2025 edition of the Golden Boy, the prize handed annually to the best young player at a European club, did not even feature his name.
To qualify for the Golden Boy, presided over by Italian newspaper and voted for by journalists from leading publications across Europe, you must be under the age of 21 and play for a club in a top flight league somewhere in the continent.
Yamal won in 2024 and therein lies the overriding reason for his omission this time. Aside from age and geography, the other qualifying factor is that no one is eligible to be named the Golden Boy more than once in their career. No exceptions.
Yamal, although unquestionably the best young player in the world, cannot scoop the trophy a second time. It arguably skews it, because Doué is not truly the ‘Golden Boy’.
On the other hand, it gives others a chance and avoids the award becoming a monopoly—it has been argued by some that the Ballon d’Or should follow similar rules given how no one other than Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo laid hands on the trophy after 2007 until 2018.
