Three Chelsea players nominated for UEFA Golden Boy award

Three Chelsea players have been named on the shortlist for the UEFA Golden Boy award.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek,who is still working with the Blues every day, has been joined on the list by loanees Nathan and Andreas Christensen, who are currently midway through their temporary spells at Vitesse Arnhem and Borussia Monchengladbach respectively.

Seen as the ‘Ballon d’Or for U21 players’, the Chelsea trio join 37 of the best talents playing in European football today on the list organised by Italian publication Tuttosport.

National newspapers around Europe will nominate five players to win the award, awarding them points which vary on how impressive they think each young player has been over the last 12 months – 10 points for the most impressive, seven points for second, five for third, three for fourth and one point for the fifth-most impressive nominee.

Adjudicating newspapers include BILD (Germany), Blick (Switzerland), A Bola(Portugal), l’Équipe (France), France Football (France), Marca (Spain), Mundo Deportivo (Spain), Ta Nea (Greece), Sport Express (Russia), De Telegraaf (Netherlands), and The Times (United Kingdom).

The award was introduced in 2003, with the inaugural winner being Rafael van der Vaart, then of Ajax. Other notable past winners include Wayne Rooney (2004), Lionel Messi (2005), Sergio Aguero (2007), Mario Gotze (2011) and Paul Pogba (2013). Last year’s winner was Anthony Martial.

Other notable players nominated for this year’s award include Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Kelechi Iheanacho (Manchester City), Dele Alli (Tottenham), Demarai Gray (Leicester City), Alex Iwobi (Arsenal), Marco Asensio (Real Madrid) and Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich).