Three Real Madrid players featured on the list of nominees for the 2026 "Golden Boy" award, presented annually by the Italian newspaper "Tuttosport" to the best young player in the European leagues.
Los Blancos boast three names on that list: Ivorian Yan Diomande, Brazilian Endrick and Spaniard Thiago Pitarch, as the Royal club confirmed on its official website.
To qualify for the 2026 award, a player must have been born after 1 January 2006 and must be registered with one of the 25 strongest European leagues.
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Plenty of big names round out the field, among them Lamine Yamal, Warren Zaire-Emery, Pau Cubarsi, Ayyoub Bouaddi, Estevao, Lennart Karl, Ethan Nwaneri and Franco Mastantuono.
The preliminary list runs to 100 players. "Tuttosport" will update the ranking every month, before eventually trimming it down to 20 who will fight it out for the final award.
A panel of 50 journalists from the leading European media outlets decides the winner.
Frenchman Desire Doue, the Paris Saint-Germain star, holds the crown as the most recent Golden Boy. He landed the 2025 award by a wide margin over Real Madrid's Turkish playmaker Arda Guler, who finished second.