Footballers Geovany Quenda, from two-time Portuguese champion Sporting, Rodrigo Mora and Victor Froholdt, both from FC Porto, were today part of the 25 finalists for the Golden Boy award, which distinguishes the best under-21 player in the world in 2025.
Responsible for awarding the award since 2003, the Italian newspaper Tuttosport had published an initial list of 100 candidates, which were reduced to 25 before the announcement of the winner of the 23rd edition, scheduled for December, with a date still to be designated.
Geovany Quenda became national champion and won the Portuguese Cup in 2024/25, in his first season with Sporting, during which he was even made official as a reinforcement for English club Chelsea, club world champions, from the summer of 2026.
The winger was the best young player in the I League last season, was part of the ideal under-21 European team and was called up to the main team, but did not make his debut, a scenario similar to that of striker Rodrigo Mora, from FC Porto, whose first call-up came in the four-way final of the League of Nations, won by the Portuguese, in Germany.
Quenda and Mora, both 18 years old, are accompanied in the Golden Boy discussion by midfielder Victor Froholdt, 19, who was signed by the ‘dragons’ in July, after having won a championship and a Danish Cup with Copenhagen in 2024/25.
Unlike Quenda and Mora, Froholdt has six caps for his country’s main team and made his debut last week, in the rout of Belarus (6-0), in Hungary, in the third round of Group C of the European qualification for the World Cup 2026, continuing the impactful start to the season at FC Porto.
Four-time French champion and European champion Paris Saint-Germain is one of the three most represented clubs in the finalists, with Desiré Doué, Warren Zaire-Emery and Senny Mayulu, along with Spanish players from Real Madrid, with Arda Güler, Dean Huijsen and Franco Mastantuono – the latter two represented Bournemouth and River Plate in the first half of the calendar year – and from Chelsea, with Mamadou Sarr, loaned to Strasbourg, Jorrel Hato, from Ajax, and Estêvão, who left Palmeiras, owned by Abel Ferreira.
The winner will succeed winger Lamine Yamal, from Spanish champions FC Barcelona, in a list that includes Portuguese internationals Renato Sanches and João Félix, winners in 2016 and 2019, when they became famous for Benfica, respectively.