Who won Golden Boy 2025? Winners of Tuttosport awards for best Under-21 soccer star in the world

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While the Ballon d’Or is considered the pinnacle achievement of individual football awards, there are a number of other famous trophies given out by various organisations following the sport.

One of the most prestigious annual awards is the Golden Boy, awarded to the best young star currently playing for a European club.

Given to huge names such as Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Kylian Mbappe, and Jude Bellingham across the award’s history spanning over 20 years, it’s considered one of the most coveted individual honours a player can earn, indicating that their achievements at such a young age are world-renowned.

Thanks to the growth of the women’s game over the past decade, the Golden Girl award was established in 2022 alongside its long-standing counterpart to recognise the best young female player in global football.

The Sporting News details who the latest winner of the award is, who has won it in the past, and how the winner is decided each year.

MORE: Who has won the most Ballon d’Or awards? All-time list of winners from France Football

Who won Golden Boy 2025?

The winner of the 2025 Golden Boy award was Desire Doue of Paris Saint-Germain.

Throughout the 2025/26 season, Doue scored 16 goals and assisted 16 more across all competitions.

His watershed moment came in the UEFA Champions League final, when he led PSG to European glory by scoring a brace and laying on an assist in the 5-0 victory over Inter Milan.

Only having turned 20 in June, Doue is undoubtedly considered one of the most exciting young players around the world.

He won the award over the likes of Arda Guler (Real Madrid/Turkey), Pau Cubarsi (Barcelona/Spain), and Kenan Yildiz (Juventus/Turkey). Nominees from Premier League clubs included Dean Huijsen (Bournemouth/Real Madrid, Spain), Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal/England), and Estevao (Chelsea/Brazil).

Who won Golden Girl 2025?

England star Michelle Agyemang won the 2025 Golden Girl award, the fourth iteration of this relatively new award.

Still just 19 years old, Agyemang made headlines over the summer with her super-sub performance for England at the Women’s Euro 2025. She scored twice off the bench in the knockout stage and converted her effort in the shootout against Spain in the final, helping the Lionesses win the title.

Agyemang, who is on loan at Women’s Super League club Brighton from Arsenal, tore her ACL in October while on international duty, and is likely to miss at least a year.

She won the award over nominees including Lily Yohannes (Lyon/USA), Giulia Galli (Roma/Italy), and Wieke Kaptein (Chelsea/Netherlands) among others.

Who votes for the Golden Boy award?

Since its inception in 2003, the Golden Boy and Golden Girl awards have been given out by the Italian sports publication Tuttosport.

While Tuttosport arrange the award’s presentation, they alone do not decide the winner. Instead, a panel of 50 journalists from across Europe are among those who vote for the award.

The voting pool includes journalists from varying sports publications across Europe, including Bild (Germany), Blick (Switzerland), A Bola (Portugal), L’Equipe (France), France Football (France), Marca (Spain), Mundo Deportivo (Spain), Ta Nea (Greece), Sport Express (Russia), De Telegraaf (Netherlands), and The Times (England). The exact writers voting from these publications are not revealed publicly.

Each voter lists 10 players, pulled from an algorithm-driven computer-generated pool of 100 nominees, ranked in order of their perceived candidacy to win. A point tally of descending value is then given to each player determined by their positioning on the ballot. For example, a first-place vote would garner 10 points, a 2nd-place vote nine points, and so on down to one point for a 10th-place vote. The point totals from all 50 ballots are added up, and the winner is the individual with the most points.

The selection period is across a calendar year, instead of a traditional European season. Thus, for example, Doue’s 2025 win was for the 2025 calendar year, not the 2024/25 European season.

Additionally, the Golden Boy Web award is chosen solely by online votes, largely made up of fans from across the world.

Can you win Golden Boy award more than once?

All Golden Boy and Golden Girl nominees must be under the age of 21.

Additionally, a single player cannot win the Golden Boy award more than once in their career.

This came into play in 2025, as 18-year-old Lamine Yamal is no longer eligible to win after being the 2024 recipient. The young Spaniard would likely have been the winner had he been among the nominees.

List of Golden Boy award winners all-time

List of Golden Girl award winners all-time