Nigeria’s Kelechi Iheanacho nominated for Europe’s Best Young Player Award

Nigerian youngster, Kelechi Iheanacho, has been included in the 40-man strong shortlist to be crowned as Europe’s best young player.

Iheanacho has been hugging the headlines in recent times and could be succeeding his teammate, Raheem Sterling, who won the 2014 prestigious Golden Boy award, first established by the Italian newspaper Tuttosport.

Aside Sterling, other past winners include Lionel Messi (2005), Sergio Agüero (2007) and Mario Götze (2011) among others.

The Golden Boy Award is reserved for players under the age of 21.

Interestingly, there are a handful of players of Nigerian descent also listed, they include Jordon Ibe who is joined by Tottenham teenager Dele Alli.

A total of six other Premier League-based players are also included, among them Watford’s Chelsea loanee Nathan Ake, Héctor Bellerín of Arsenal, Manchester United’s Anthony Martial and Kelechi Iheanacho of Manchester City.

The winner of the award, voted for by journalists from 30 newspapers around the world, will be announced in December.

The full shortlist:

Premier League: Nathan Ake (Watford; on loan from Chelsea), Dele Alli (Tottenham), Héctor Bellerín (Arsenal), Jordon Ibe (Liverpool), Kelechi Iheanacho (Manchester City), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea), Anthony Martial (Manchester United), Divock Origi (Liverpool), Luke Shaw (Manchester United), Adama Traoré (Aston Villa).

La Liga: Marco Asensio (Espanyol), Zakaria Bakkali (Valencia), Ángel Correa (Atlético Madrid), Danilo Barbosa (Valencia), Munir El Haddadi (Barcelona), Alen Halilovic (Barcelona), Sandro Ramírez (Barcelona),

Bundesliga: Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich), Dahoud Mahmoud (Borussia M’gladbach), Francisco Rodríguez (Wolsfburg), Pierre-Emile Hojberg (Schalke), Adnan Januzaj (Borussia Dortmund; on loan from Manchester United), Max Meyer (Schalke),
Serie A: Ricardo Kishna (Lazio), Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (Lazio), Alessio Romagnoli (Milan)

Ligue 1: Mario Pasalic (Monaco; on loan from Chelsea), Adrien Rabiot (PSG), Adama Traoré (Monaco)

Turkish Super Lig: Jason Denayer (Galatasaray; on loan from Manchester City)

Dutch Eredivise: Anwar El Ghazi (Ajax Amsterdam), Gaston Pereiro (PSV), Tonny Vilhena (Feyenoord)

Portuguese Primeira Liga: Goncalo Guedes (Benfica), Ruben Neves (Porto)

Kazakhstan Premier League: Nemanja Maksimovic (Astana)

Croatian Prva Liga: Marko Pajca (Dinamo Zagreb)

Belgian Jupiler Pro league: Moses Simon (KAA Gent), Youri Tielemans (Anderlecht)

Serbian SuperLiga: Andrija Zivkovic (Partizan Belgrade)

Source: Premium Times