Barcelona are a team that have a long standing tradition of developing elite youth level talent through La Masia, and players that typically manage to graduate from this prestigious academy typically tend to find themselves in one elite club or another.
In the modern era of football, the standards for youth players to be able to stand out keep getting higher and higher. Similar to the Ballon D’or, which is given out to the best football player of the year, exists the Golden Boy award, an award dedicated specifically to youngsters in order to celebrate, via voting, the best young talent of the year.
For the 2023 iteration of the award, as has been highlighted by SPORT in a recent article, two Barcelona players find themselves in the list of the top five favourites to win the award this time around.
One of the two FC Barcelona players in the conversation is Pablo Gavira, or Gavi as he is more popularly known, who is currently considered to be the third favourite in the list of the top five, behind Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala and Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham.
Also the latest winner of the award, having already been awarded it in 2022, the Spanish midfielder has consistently managed to impress sporting journalists and fans who continue to vote for the 18-year-old despite him having already won it prior to this year.
The other Barcelona player involved is a new addition to the shortlist. The player in question being none other than the Catalan club’s new starting left-back, Alejandro Balde.
The 19-year-old fullback enjoyed a top level breakout season for Barcelona and was crucial in their quests to win both the La Liga title and the Spanish Supercup. Having overtaken veteran and Barcelona icon Jordi Alba to become the starter under Xavi Hernandez, the player is considered to be amongst the top five favourites to win it this year.
All around, the golden boy award shortlist currently consists of a total of 100 top young talents and the winner will be decided through the votes of sports journalists currently working for top level media organisations and fans. Previous winners have included a multitude of Barcelona stars including Lionel Messi, Pedri and most recently Gavi.
