Winning the Golden Boy award is supposed to be the beginning of something special. Since Tuttosport introduced it in 2003, the Golden Boy award has gone to young players who have already convinced the world they could become the next great stars.
However, there is a difference between potential and reality. Some wonderkids grow into superstars, others become very good players, while some never come close to matching the expectations that followed them.
But which Golden Boy winners actually made the most of their potential?
From Sergio Agüero and Cesc Fàbregas to Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi, we rank the 10 Golden Boy winners whose careers have best lived up to the potential they showed as teenagers.
10. Sergio Agüero
When Sergio Agüero won the Golden Boy award in 2007, he already looked like a striker built for the biggest stages.
At 19, he helped Argentina win the Under-20 World Cup, taking both the Golden Ball and Golden Boot. That same season, he finally secured a starting spot at Atletico Madrid, scoring 19 goals and finishing third in La Liga’s Golden Boot race.
Four years later, he moved to England, where he delivered the iconic “Agueroooo” moment that secured Manchester City’s first top-flight title since 1968.
That moment may be his most famous one, but Agüero had many more glorious moments on the blue side of Manchester. He scored 184 Premier League goals, which is the most by an overseas player.
He also ended his Manchester City career as the club’s all-time leading scorer, with the most hat-tricks in Premier League history, five Premier League titles, six League Cups, and an FA Cup.
9. Pedri
Pedri’s debut season in the 2020/21 season felt unreal for a teenager. He went from replacing Coutinho in the 70th minute of the 4-0 win over Villarreal to being an indispensable starter for the Blaugrana.
He made 52 appearances for the club, more than any other Barça player that season, while also playing for Spain at the Olympics and becoming a key part of the run to the Euro 2020 semi-finals, taking his total appearances in his debut season to over 70 games.
At 18, he was already controlling games against some of Europe’s best midfielders, and he went on to win the Golden Boy and Kopa Trophy.
But that stretch of games took its toll on the Spanish midfielder. His eyes lost that spark you see in his youth, and his body responded in kind, as he was frequently injured. Despite this, Pedri has proved that his 2020-21 season was no fluke.
He helped Barça win La Liga in 2022/23 and a domestic double in 2025/26. By the end of 2025/26, he already has three La Liga titles, two Copa del Rey titles and three Spanish Super Cups with the club, while also winning the Nations League, Euro 2024 and the 2026 World Cup with Spain.
That résumé already makes Pedri a Golden Boy who has delivered on his promise, but at 23, his story is still being written, and his best years may still be ahead of him.
8. Jude Bellingham
After watching Jude Bellingham in his first season at Real Madrid, it is easy to understand why Birmingham City retired his jersey.
Bellingham is a throwback to midfielders of the 90s and early 2000s. For Real Madrid fans, he reminds them of Zinedine Zidane, and it’s no surprise he wears the number 5, which the iconic French midfielder wore at Real Madrid.
Before winning the Golden Boy award in 2023, Bellingham was a teenage sensation from Birmingham City who moved to Borussia Dortmund and captained the club at 19. He also helped Dortmund finish second in the Bundesliga in his final season, while winning the Bundesliga Player of the Year award, the Kopa Trophy, and the Golden Boy award.
Then, he moved to Real Madrid, and his first season was ridiculous.
He finished as Real Madrid’s top goal scorer in the league with 19 goals, while scoring 27 goals and 15 assists for club and country. He won the league title and the Champions League in the same season.
Bellingham’s performance in his debut season earned him third-place finishes both in the 2024 Ballon d’Or and FIFA The Best Award. Many have compared him with Pedri, and still do. His ranking on this list should tell you how that argument is going.
7. Erling Haaland
If football fans unanimously call Lewandowski “the goal machine”, then they’re going to need something equally befitting for Erling Haaland.
Erling Haaland is a 6’5” Nordic goal machine, and he plays like one. Before winning the Golden Boy award in 2020, Haaland was already famous for scoring nine goals in Norway’s win against Honduras at the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Ever since then, Haaland has kept on scoring goals and breaking records.
On his Champions League debut, he scored in Red Bull Salzburg’s 6-2 win over Genk, becoming the only player to score a first-half hat-trick on their UCL debut. He moved to Dortmund shortly after and remained a goalscoring menace.
On his Dortmund debut, he scored a hat-trick despite coming off the bench. He would later record 86 goals in 89 games for Dortmund. Goals are his defining feature, and it was the main reason Manchester City brought him to England.
Erling Haaland’s debut season in the English Premier League will be talked about for years to come. He scored 52 goals in 53 games as City won the treble, including a record 36 Premier League goals and 12 in the Champions League. Haaland collected the Premier League Golden Boot, Player of the Season and PFA Player of the Year awards, while finally helping City win the Champions League.
He produced the best individual season for a Premier League player since Cristiano Ronaldo in 2008, only to be snubbed for the Ballon d’Or award.
Off the field, Haaland is one of the most loved players of his generation, and this Nordic machine still has more to offer.
6. Lamine Yamal
Bathed by Lionel Messi, plays like him, everyone, football may have actually found the next Messi.
Lamine Yamal won the Golden Boy in 2024 at just 17 years and four months, becoming the youngest player ever to receive the award.
In his breakout season, he became Spain’s youngest-ever senior player and scorer. Then he starred at Euro 2024, where he became the tournament’s youngest player and youngest scorer before helping Spain beat England in the final. He finished the tournament with four assists and the Young Player of the Tournament award, but this was just the start.
Yamal followed his Golden Boy-winning year with 18 goals and 21 assists in all club competitions in the 2024/25 season, helping Barcelona win a domestic treble and almost won the Ballon d’Or in the process.
In the 2025/26 campaign, he recorded 16 La Liga goals and 11 assists for Barcelona, and won another league title, the Copa del Rey, and the Spanish Super Cup. Yamal was named La Liga Player of the Season, and then added the biggest prize of them all: the 2026 World Cup with Spain. He also became the youngest player ever to win both the European Championship and the World Cup.
There is almost nothing left to say about Yamal’s potential because he is already delivering on it, and it won’t be long before he gets his hands on the Ballon d’Or.
5. Paul Pogba
A Golden Boy, World Cup and four-time Serie A title winner, Paul Pogba is a clear example of a complete midfielder. However, his career still leaves much to be desired.
Pogba won the Golden Boy award in 2013 after breaking through the ranks at Juventus. Injuries to Andrea Pirlo and Claudio Marchisio gave him a starting spot, and he took full advantage of that to become a stalwart in the team.
He was a serial winner in Italy, adding two Coppa Italia trophies and two Italian Super Cups to his trophy haul during his first spell in Turin. He was also one of Europe’s best young midfielders, and his performances earned him a return to Manchester United in 2016 for a then-world-record transfer fee of €105 million.
At his best, Pogba could almost control the midfield by himself. He won the Europa League and League Cup in his first season at United, became a key figure for France, and produced one of the defining moments of his career by scoring in the 2018 World Cup final as France became world champions.
But all this happened in one half of his career. He suffered from a couple of injuries in his final years at Manchester United, and when he returned to Juventus in 2022, he just wasn’t the same guy.
Off the field, he had an extortion scandal that involved his brother. In 2023, he was banned for four years after testing positive for elevated levels of testosterone after a Juventus game.
The sentence was eventually reduced to 18 months, but so have Pogba’s chances of returning to his elite status. He still is a great midfielder, but he could’ve been so much more.
4. Cesc Fàbregas
Barcelona’s La Masia is constantly praised for producing the best young talents in the world, and Arsenal can attest to that after bringing Cesc Fàbregas to England at 16. Following his debut in the 2003/2004 season, he became the club’s youngest-ever first-team player, a record which has now been broken by Ethan Nwaneri.
Although Fàbregas didn’t enjoy much success at Arsenal, he established himself as an elite Premier League midfielder. His career then took him back to Barcelona, where he won one La Liga title, the Copa del Rey, the Club World Cup and the UEFA Super Cup, before returning to England with Chelsea.
At Chelsea, he re-established himself as a legend of the game, and he was renowned for his passing ability. He also won two Premier League titles, the FA Cup, the League Cup and the Europa League.
But his greatest international achievement came with Spain. Fàbregas was part of the golden generation that won Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012.
3. Wayne Rooney
Love him or hate him, Wayne Rooney is one of the greatest players of his generation. From a young age, you could tell that this lad with a buzzcut was a rugged sensation.
He had announced himself to the football world with the famous long-range winner for Everton against Arsenal, before Manchester United paid £27 million for him at just 18. His debut told you almost everything: a Champions League hat-trick against Fenerbahçe, followed by years of goals, assists, trophies and moments that made him one of the defining players of his generation.
At Old Trafford, Rooney evolved into a complete forward who could play almost anywhere across the attack. He won five Premier League titles, the Champions League, the Europa League, an FA Cup and three League Cups, while scoring a club-record 253 goals for United.
And then, there is the overhead kick against Manchester City, which has become part of Premier League folklore.
2. Kylian Mbappe
For those comparing him to Lamine Yamal, stop it. There hasn’t been another teenager like Kylian Mbappe.
He was only 18 when he helped Monaco win Ligue 1 in 2017, scoring 27 goals in 60 appearances and announcing himself in the Champions League with goals against Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund. It was only fitting that he won the Golden Boy award at the end of that season.
Then, Paris Saint-Germain came calling, but first, he followed up his Golden Boy status with a performance that turned heads at the 2018 World Cup. He was a menace in the knockout stages, and at 19, he scored in the final against Croatia and became the second teenager after Pelé to score in a World Cup final.
If you think what he did at the 2018 World Cup was ridiculous, Mbappe pulled out more magic tricks at the 2022 World Cup, including a hat-trick against Argentina in the 2022 final and finishing the tournament with the Golden Boot.
In 2026, he stole Pelé’s “Mr World Cup” tag, winning his second consecutive World Cup Golden Boot and becoming the FIFA World Cup’s all-time leading goalscorer with 22 career goals across just three tournaments.
In his seven years at PSG, he won six Ligue 1 titles and finished as the league’s top scorer six consecutive times from 2018 to 2024. He also became PSG’s all-time leading scorer with 256 goals.
In 2024, he followed in the footsteps of his idol Cristiano Ronaldo and joined Real Madrid. It was the move every football fan was waiting for, as they wanted to see him do it outside Ligue 1, and maybe he would finally get his hands on the Ballon d’Or and UEFA Champions League, which seems to be Real Madrid’s birthright.
He finished his first La Liga season with 31 goals, won the Pichichi and European Golden Boot. In his second season, he won the Pichichi award again, the World Cup Golden Boot, and the UEFA Champions League Golden Boot, all while going trophyless.
Mbappe’s career is moving at the speed many would’ve predicted, but no Ballon d’Or or UEFA Champions League trophy yet? He still has some work to do.
1. Lionel Messi
If the Golden Boy award is supposed to tell us which teenager will become a superstar, then Lionel Messi is what happens when the prediction is almost insultingly accurate.
After winning the Golden Boy Award in 2005, Messi changed the game forever. Where do we even begin?
At Barcelona, Messi won 10 La Liga titles, four Champions Leagues and seven Copa del Rey titles, while scoring 672 goals in 778 appearances. In 2012, he scored 91 goals in a calendar year, a record that looks impossible to break.
He has also won eight Ballon d’Ors, six European Golden Shoes, two Copa América titles, and, most importantly, the FIFA World Cup, which he won in 2022, completing his international career. He has scored over 920 goals and provided over 420 assists in his illustrious career.
His final World Cup campaign in 2026 nearly delivered the perfect ending. Aged 39, Messi scored eight goals and provided four assists as Argentina reached a second consecutive final, only to lose 1–0 to Spain after extra time. A month later, he announced his retirement from the national team, closing the curtains on an illustrious international career.
When you look at it, Messi didn’t just win the Golden Boy award in 2005; he became football’s golden boy.
Who wrote this?
Wisdom Aghe is a creative whose passions include sports, video editing, writing and a little bit of design. With these skills and a curious mind, Wisdom takes interest in creating sports content and holding interesting sports conversations. He loves sports and it's his happy place. He spends his leisure time playing football, playing games and reading.
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