Top 5 nominees for the Golden Boy award revealed?

What's the story?

In a surprising turn of events, World Cup winner and Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappe has been snubbed from the top five nominee-list for the Golden Boy award. However, this is down to his likely involvement in the top 3 of the Ballon d'Or.

In case you didn't know...

The Golden Boy award, founded by Italian newspaper Tuttosport, is given to a player under the age of 21 by journalists in recognition of his talents in the game. The player, however, must play in one of Europe's top tier leagues.

The first player to receive the award was former Tottenham and Real Madrid midfielder Rafael Van Der Vaart when it was established in 2003.

The likes of Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney and Paul Pogba have all picked up the award since then.

Last year, the award was given to stand-out 19-year-old Kylian Mbappe and the PSG star was once again in the list of forty nominees this year after his heroics at the FIFA World Cup in Russia and Paris Saint-Germain's treble domestic league win.

The heart of the matter

However, in a shocking turn of events, the World Cup star has been snubbed from the five-man shortlist (via The Standard UK) for the award. The likes of Phil Foden and Tom Davies also join Mbappe off the forty-man list.

The top five contenders of the award instead comprised of Trent Alexander-Arnold (England and Liverpool), Vinicius Junior (Brazil and Real Madrid), Patrick Cutrone (Italy and AC Milan), Justin Kluivert (the Netherlands and AS Roma) and Matthijs de Ligt (the Netherlands and AFC Ajax).

Alexander-Arnold made it to the final five after an impressive season at Anfield that led him to a Champions League final and a call-up to the England squad by Gareth Southgate.

What's next?

The winner of the award is set to be announced on December 17.