THE STORY OF GOLDEN BOY
The international ‘European Golden Boy’ award for the best Under-21 footballer of the year was launched in the autumn of 2003 by Turin journalist Massimo Franchi, following input from the editor and publisher of Tuttosport. The first winner was Rafael Van der Vaart, who won the Tuttosport trophy by outshining England’s Wayne Rooney and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo. The 20-year-old Dutchman was already a promising player at Ajax, while that season, the Briton was still playing for Everton, and the 18-year-old Madeira native had left Sporting Lisbon a few months earlier to join Sir Alex Ferguson in Manchester. At that time, there were 30 international jurors (now there are 40), and they only indicated the best 3 players on the list (their ballots, since 2005, allow 5 votes). Through the friendly offices of David Endt, Ajax’s chief press officer extraordinaire at the time, we arranged for the Golden Boy to be presented in a lounge at the Amsterdam ArenA (a venue dedicated to Johan Cruyff since spring 2018). And ‘Rafa’ wanted to pose, for the ritual photo, right under a mega poster of the greatest footballer in the history of the red-and-white club and Holland. At one point, former ‘Neapolitan’ Rudy Krol, one of the strongest defenders ever, showed up to accompany our interview with the first Golden Boy: “This award is interesting; you had a good idea. Too bad it didn’t exist in my day…”.

CHOCOLATE FOR ROONEY
The following year, 2004, we moved to Manchester to award Rooney, who had also moved to the Red Devils during the summer transfer market, where he found Cristiano Ronaldo – who finished second, following his teammate – in that edition of the Golden Boy. An explosive offensive pair that went on to win the Champions League four years later in the Moscow final against Chelsea. We headed to the Carrington Training Centre (now called the AON Training Complex in homage to the sponsor), where a visibly excited ‘Wazza’ – CR7 himself nicknamed him – was waiting for us. We brought him a gift of a box of Gianduiotti, the delicious hazelnut chocolate ingots so popular in Turin: Rooney, a foodie, “devoured” the Golden Boy with one eye and the chocolates with the other…

MESSI, HISTORICAL PHOTOS
In 2005, we went to Camp Nou in Barcelona to award an 18-year-old Messi. Leo asked us to take the trophy to the press room and show it to the reporters present at the pre-match conference. At the end of the interview, the Blaugrana press manager, Txemi Terés, arrived: “We will keep the Golden Boy; tomorrow, we will surprise you”. The next day, at midfield, a few minutes before the championship match, three Barça players stood in front of the stands, each holding a trophy, and posed for the customary photo: they were Ronaldinho with the Fifa World Player Gold, Messi with Tuttosport’s Golden Boy and Eto’o with the Fifa World Player Bronze. A shot that went viral around the world. The Golden Boy had definitely accomplished a breakthrough. Leo would go on to win six Ballon d’Or (the first in 2009), but before that, he came second in the Golden Boy’s competition for two consecutive years: 2006 and 2007. A monstrous feat when you consider that the international jurors of Tuttosport have decided by convention (not by regulation) that the winner of our trophy is admitted ‘by right’ to the race for the next Ballon d’Or and therefore, for many, they no longer re-vote the Golden Boy holder even though he still meets the age requirements for an encore.

CESC, CHAMPIONS RELEASED
The fourth winner of the Tuttosport prize was the Catalan Francesc “Cesc” Fàbregas. Born in ’87, the same as Messi. A gamble (won) by the French ‘holy man’ Arsène Wenger who wanted him at all costs at Arsenal – of which the Catalan later became the much-appreciated captain – snatching him at just 16 years of age from the Barcelona youth teams. In May 2006, he came close to winning the Champions League, losing 2-1 in the Paris final at the Stade de France against ‘his’ Barça. The Golden Boy raised him to the skies in December at the Emirates Stadium, after granting us – the day before – a long exclusive interview in a lounge at the Training Centre in Colney, Hertfordshire. Our friendly chat went on and on. At one point, the door opened: “Ah, are you still there?” Cesc was a little embarrassed, and struggled to come up with a quick response. “Don’t worry, go ahead.” It was “Le Professeur” Wenger himself…

AGÜERO “BLOCKS” THE REFEREE
World Under-20 champion in 2007, top scorer (6 goals) and best player at the Canadian championship, Sergio Leonel ‘El Kun’ Agüero deservedly won the Golden Boy at the end of that year: the fifth winner of Tuttosport’s international award as the best youngster in European football. He made an impressive start in the league with Atlético Madrid (second season with the ‘colchoneros’), and at the end of the season, he was the top scorer with 19 goals (27 in all competitions). The Golden Boy award ceremony took place on the lawn of the old and historic Vicente Calderón stadium on the banks of the Manzanares. The facility has now been demolished to make way for a bypass of the M30 motorway. After hosting us the day before in Atlético’s Trophy Room for the ritual interview, ‘El Kun’ lingered in the midfield circle chatting with us, proudly brandishing the Golden Boy trophy. He even leafed through Tuttosport to read the headlines about him. The teams (the rival of the day was Getafe) were already lined up, ready to start the game. But the referee, almost in obsequious ‘veneration’ of the glittering trophy, dared not do anything… Ditto the stewards and the Atlético staff. All respectfully waiting for Agüero to become free. Until we voluntarily left the field to allow the whistle to blow. As we left the pitch, we met Danish coach ‘Miki’ Laudrup, formerly of Juventus, on the Getafe bench, who joked: “With this Golden Boy, you can also delay matches. Great.”

ANDERSON SUMMONS MOU
The following autumn, in 2008, we returned to Old Trafford. The winner of the Golden Boy was Brazilian talent Anderson Luís de Abreu Oliveira, who had just won the Champions League with Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson had spared no expense (€31.5 million 14 years ago… ) to snatch him from Porto. It was the closest ever edition of the Golden Boy: Anderson prevailed in the race for the trophy by just three points, a trifle, over another Premier League player, Arsenal’s Theo Walcott. Defending champion Agüero came third. Pato came fifth and Balotelli sixth. The ‘Red Devils’ fans gave him a special chorus in the stadium during the award ceremony. Despite the fact that he had left them stunned with his exclusive statements to Tuttosport the day before: “My wish is to go to Italy, where the most intelligent football in the world is played. In particular, my dream is to be coached by José Mourinho”. And the British press went wild…

PATO PRAISES GALLIANI
In 2009, finally, the first triumph of a player from our Serie A, albeit a foreigner. Award ceremony in the San Siro ‘temple’ for Alexandre Pato, a compatriot of his ‘golden’ predecessor Anderson. The SKY cameras were also present, with a live TV award ceremony followed by an interview with the then Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani, who said: “This Golden Boy is luxury stuff.” In second place in that edition came another foreign player from Serie A, the Montenegrin Stevan Jovetic of Fiorentina, and in third place was the Catalan-Serbian Bojan Krkic of Barcelona (then a Rossoneri player in 2012). “It is an award that makes me proud,” Pato told us. I was hoping for it last year too. I’ve seen the roll of honour. Messi went on to win the Ballon d’Or this year. I hope that Tuttosport’s Golden Boy is a good omen for the future.”

BALOTELLI AND WILSHERE
The first and so far only Italian to win the Golden Boy in 2010 was the pyrotechnic Mario Balotelli when he played for Manchester City under Roberto Mancini. The award ceremony was scheduled for the 20th of December and the day before the usual interview. But a snowstorm that hit all of Northern Europe cancelled our flight. Mancini gave us permission to interview SuperMario the following evening during the warm-up at the Etihad Stadium, a few minutes before the official awarding of the Golden Boy in front of the spectators packing the stands. “Who else could have won it if not me? Of all the previous winners, only Messi is slightly stronger than me. For now… Second came Wil… who? Wilshere? I don’t know him. The next time I play against Arsenal, I will take a better look at him. Perhaps I’ll show him the Golden Boy so he’ll remember I won it.” An explosive interview, which has become legendary…

GÖTZE, THE GOLD OF THE RHINE
In December 2011, the Golden Boy arrived in Germany for the first time. The winner is striker Mario Götze, the darling of Jürgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund and Germany coach Joachim Löw. The 19-year-old German surpassed two other rising stars of European football, Barcelona midfielder Thiago Alcàntara (at Bayern since 2013 and now at Liverpool) and Belgian playmaker Eden Hazard of Lille (now at Real Madrid), to succeed Balotelli. Technically gifted and regarded as one of the most talented youngsters in the German youth academy, ‘Golden Götze’, as the German press immediately dubbed him, is one of the architects of Dortmund’s seventh Meisterschale (7 goals). In August of that year, on his seventh appearance with the national team, he scored his first goal in the Juventus shirt in the friendly match won 3-2 against Brazil in Stuttgart. He moved to Bayern for 37 million in 2013 and the following year scored Germany’s winning goal (in the 8th minute of the second extra time) in the World Cup final against Argentina in Rio.

ISCO, THE “PROVINCIAL”
The second Spanish Under-21 player to win the Golden Boy after Catalan Fàbregas, Francisco Román Alarcón Suárez – better known as Isco – was also the first and so far only player to win the Tuttosport international trophy (2012 edition) despite playing for a “provincial” team. Malaga is a charming resort town in Andalusia, the pearl of the equally beautiful Costa del Sol, but its eponymous football club has never been a great sporting success. “Zero titles”, in the words of Mourinho, in 115 years of history, apart from the already discontinued and almost redundant Intertoto Cup in 2002, shared with Stuttgart and Fulham… The only moment of real glory for the ‘Boquerones’ (named after a variety of very delicious anchovies fished in the Alborán Sea) coincided with the explosion of Isco, the ‘enfant du pays’ (‘child of the nation’) born in Arroyo de la Miel, a hilly conurbation of Benalmádena where the ‘Tivoli World’ theme park is located: an Andalusian take on Disneyland. Málaga bought him from Valencia in 2011, paying the 6 million clause. In 2012, Isco led Chilean coach Pellegrini’s biancoblù to 4th place in La Liga and then to a Champions League run that was crowned by a double score against Spalletti’s Zenit in Group C, which they won with 12 points ahead of AC Milan. That edition of the Golden Boy was very well-balanced: 137 votes for Isco, 125 for El Shaarawy (AC Milan, now Roma) and 116 for goalkeeper Courtois of Atlético Madrid (now at Real). A few months after winning the Tuttosport trophy, Isco was bought by Real Madrid (where he is still registered) for 30 million.

POGBA AT SAINT VINCENT
The Golden Boy returned to Italy in 2013, after the success of Pato four years earlier. The winner was another foreigner from Serie A, the first Juventus player and the first Frenchman: Paul Pogba, known as The Octopus. The talent of Guinean origin received our prestigious award during a gala evening held at the Saint-Vincent Resort & Casino convention centre in Valle d’Aosta, and presented by the former Miss Italia, Cristina Chiabotto. In second place was Romelu Lukaku (then at Everton), with Julian Draxler (then at Schalke 04) coming in third and Rafaël Varane, formerly of Real Madrid, in at fourth. Pogba not only made a fundamental contribution to winning the Scudetto and the Supercoppa di Lega in a Juve shirt, but he also won the title of ‘rainbow’ champion with the ‘Bleuets’ in the Under-20 World Cup played in Turkey in July, where he was also elected best player of the event and then became one of the mainstays of Deschamps’ senior national team (absolute world champion in Moscow 2018). “I am proud,” said Paul, upon receiving the award, I have

STERLING: 140 MILLIONS
In 2014, it was Anglo-Jamaican striker Raheem Sterling, then with Liverpool, who won the Tuttosport international trophy. He beat the Belgian-Kenyan Divock Origi, then playing for Lille (who joined the Reds the following summer), and the Brazilian Marquinhos from PSG. An award ceremony was held at Anfield before the match against Arsenal. “When I heard about winning the Golden Boy, I immediately called my mum Nadine to tell her about it. I owe her everything.” A few months after winning the Golden Boy, Sterling moved to Manchester City for around 68 million euros: he is currently worth double that.

MARTIAL, THE CAPITAL GAIN
In 2015, the trophy returned for the third time (absolute record) to Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United. It was won, for the second time after Pogba, by a Frenchman: Anthony Martial. The boy of Guadalupe origin was overwhelmingly successful against his rivals: 21 out of 30 jurors voted him first. United took him from Monaco in the summer of that year for 50 million plus 30 million in bonuses. Only two years earlier, the Principality’s club had snapped him up for a mere 5 million from Olympique Lyon. We met him for a pre-match interview under a large Christmas tree in a lounge at the AON Training Complex in Carrington and prize-giving the next day at a Red Devils home match with Norwich City. “I am honoured by the award,” said the French striker. As a kid, I was an OL fan, and the first shirt I ever had was Sonny Anderson’s.”

SANCHES IN MONTE-CARLO
The jury also voted in 2016 for Renato Sanches, the first Portuguese player to win the Golden Boy. In that ‘magical’ year, he first contributed to Benfica’s victory in the Lusitanian championship, then signed a five-year contract with Ancelotti’s Bayern (35 million plus 10 million in bonuses in the coffers of the Lisbon ‘Eagles’) and finally was instrumental in Portugal’s triumph at Euro 2016 in France. The grand awards ceremony took place in the evocative Salle d’Or of the Fairmont Hotel (formerly Loews) in Monte-Carlo on the occasion of the European TV Sport Awards. The ‘rasta’ from the Cape Verde Islands, former Portuguese colonies, was accompanied by his mother Maria Auxiliadora des Dores and his sister Micaela, as well as his agent Jorge Mendes, the world’s number one, and Bayern team manager Kathleen Kruger. Guests included Fabio Capello, Flavio Briatore, Vadim Vasilyev (then executive vice-president of Monaco), Massimo Cellino (then chairman of Leeds United), Andrea Radrizzani (current chairman of Leeds) and former cycling world champion Mario Cipollini.

MBAPPÉ AND RONALDO
Monte-Carlo once again hosted the 2017 Golden Boy awards ceremony, but this time the venue was none other than the Sporting Club’s “Salle des Etoiles” (owned by the princely family of Monaco) in front of an audience of over 300 guests. The French-Cameroonian Kylian Mbappé, who moved in the summer from Monaco (where he won Ligue 1) to Paris Saint-Germain for 180 million, triumphed with 291 points, almost double that of his compatriot Dembélé (149), and Englishman Rashford (76). Only 3 out of 30 jurors did not assign him first place on their preference sheet. “I beat a lot of competition. I dedicate this award to my younger brother Ethan, who is here with me”, the first words of the striker who, about 8 months later, would become world champion with France in Moscow. The 15th Golden Boy winner was honoured on stage with the Madrid shirt of Cristiano Ronaldo, his idol.

DE LIGT LANDS IN TURIN
And finally, on 17 December 2018, for the first time ever, the Golden Boy touched down in Turin, the city of Tuttosport, the place where it was created. A memorable date for our historic magazine, which celebrated its 77th anniversary on the 30th of July. The setting for the gala was impressive: the OGR, the nineteenth-century Officine Grandi Riparazioni for the maintenance of railway vehicles, restored and redeveloped, whose spaces now house restaurants, bars, multifunctional halls, a ‘hub’ for scientific, technological and industrial research, a centre for applied research on ‘smart data’, exhibitions and workshops for cultural ideas relating to the visual, performing and musical arts and, of course, sport. Matthijs De Ligt, captain of Ajax, triumphed in this evocative setting that linked the past to the futuristic present. The first defender to put his name on the roll of honour after a long streak of strikers and midfielders. He beat off the competition and convinced the jurors (who had increased in number with the inclusion of the sports programme directors of the main Italian TV stations) thanks to his excellent technical, tactical and physical qualities, combined with an extraordinary personality, considering his young age. The boy, born in Leiderdorp (near Leiden) and managed by the indefatigable Nocerino agent Carmine ‘Mino’ Raiola, arrived in Turin accompanied by 10 other people. Almost all of them relatives: like a football team. On that occasion, he received compliments and chatted with Juventus managers Pavel Nedved and Fabio Paratici. It was there that the foundations were laid for the subsequent troubled agreement with Juventus. For the record, Beppe Marotta, who was hired by Inter Milan a few days earlier, was also present. The 2018 edition in Turin also marked another important turning point for the trophy. During the evening televised by SKY Sport, which culminated in the awarding of the Golden Boy, other prizes were awarded in new categories: the idea of the new CEO of Tuttosport, Federico Vincenzoni. These included the Golden Girl, the Web Golden Boy (i.e. the prize reserved for the Under-21 player most voted for by the popular jury via a poll on the Tuttosport.com website), the Italian Golden Boy, the Golden Agent and the Golden Manager. The OGR was overflowing with champions and former champions: a veritable star-studded line-up.

RUI COSTA PRAISES FÉLIX
In 2019, a Portuguese player triumphed for the second time: striker João Félix, who moved in the summer from Benfica (with whom he became national champion: 15 goals in 26 games) to Atlético Madrid for a record sum of 127.2 million euros. Assisted by super-agent Jorge Mendes (awarded the Golden Agent for the second consecutive year), the Lusitanian was well ahead of Englishman Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund) and German Kai Havertz (Bayern Leverkusen, now at Chelsea). “Thanks to Tuttosport for the 2019 Golden Boy Award; I am very proud” the player commented warmly before heading off for Turin. “This is the second time that an Atlético Madrid player has won this award, and I am happy. Thanks also to Benfica, especially to coach Bruno Lage for everything he has done for me and to my family, who are always there for me. I send a hug to everyone for the joy of having won this prestigious trophy.” Former Rossoneri Manuel Rui Costa, sporting director of Benfica, was also among the guests at the gala, along with Enrique Cerezo and Andrea Berta from Brescia, respectively president and manager of Atlético Madrid, who wanted to congratulate and witness the great personal triumph of the young star from Viseu, in northern Portugal. Meanwhile, the awards reserved for other new categories continued to grow, such as the Golden President and the Gaetano Scirea (Fair Play award) and Vittorio Pozzo (best coach) special awards.

HAALAND, TROPHY IN DOHA
And we have now come to the last award ceremony in chronological order, that of last year. Confirming the extraordinary exponential and media growth of the Golden Boy, Tuttosport’s “Oscar night” was still held at OGR but, due to restrictions caused by COVID-19, some important guests could not come to Turin. No problem. Tuttosport and SKY organised live connections with various cities around the world: in Doha, there was the 2020 Golden Boy, the formidable Norwegian ‘panzer’ Erling Haaland of Borussia Dortmund, who was in the Qatari capital recovering from an injury at the state-of-the-art ‘Aspire Centre’. In Munich, at Bayern’s headquarters, there was Karl-Heinz ‘Kalle’ Rummenigge (winner of the Golden Manager Award) and the Reds’ 32-year-old Polish goal scorer (fresh winner of the Champions League) Robert Lewandowski, who received the first Golden Player in history since ‘France Football’ unbelievably decided not to award the Ballon d’Or for the last edition. A sort of compensation aimed at mitigating the cancellation of the usual recognition organised by the Parisian magazine, which would shortly be transformed into a monthly and no longer a weekly edition. In Barcelona, the Hispanic-Guinean talent Ansu Fati, the jewel of the ‘blaugrana’, was awarded the Web Golden Boy. Haaland’s powerful agent, Mino Raiola, who won the 2020 Golden Agent, was also present in Turin, from his Monaco residence, and received compliments via a friendly video message from another of his famous guests, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. And yet another new award made its appearance: the Artemio Franchi award, reserved for the best federal manager, was given to FIGC president Gabriele Gravina.

SEE YOU IN DECEMBER
The story continues. The next edition, the 19th Golden Boy, is scheduled for December as usual. In Turin. At the OGR. Coronavirus vaccinations continue at a rapid pace, and it is reasonable to assume that in the autumn, many restrictions will be lifted, if not removed altogether. Tuttosport’s organisational machine is already hard at work to brew up the most sumptuous gala ceremony ever…