Manchester City’s youthful Nigerian-born striker, Lukas Nmecha has been listed for the 2018 Golden Boy award and named among 100 players announced in the roll call for the voting among world renowned media houses.
Nmecha, though, will have to contend for the award with Kylian Mbappe (PSG), Reiss Nelson (Arsenal), Callum Hudson-Odoi (Chelsea), Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool) and Matthijs De Ligt (Ajax).
Others in the roll call are Nanitamo Ikone (Montpellier), Achraf Hakimi (Real Madrid), Pietro Pellegri (Monaco) and Justin Kluivert, (Roma) are among the 100 players nominated for the prestigious award.
Nmecha made his professional debut for Manchester City in a League Cup clash vs Leicester City in December 2017, and finished last season with three appearances for the first team.
Two of his older colleagues at Man City, Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero are previous recipients of the Golden Boy award.
The 19-year-old Nmecha is the only player of Nigerian decent that has been included on the list of candidates for the 16th Golden Boy award.
The award, which was established by Turin-based sports daily Tuttosport, recognizes the best U21 players in Europe over the course of a calendar year.
It includes votes from leading newspapers, namely Bild (Germany), Blick (Switzerland), A Bola (Portugal), l’équipe (France), France Football (France) and Marca (Spain).
Other top newspapers in the vote are Mundo Deportivo (Spain), Ta Nea (Greece), Sport Express (Russia), De Telegraaf (Netherlands), and The Times (United Kingdom).
