While the Ballon d'Or is considered the pinnacle achievement of individual football awards, there are a number of other famous trophies given out by various organisations following the sport.
One of the most prestigious annual awards is the Golden Boy, awarded to the best young star currently playing for a European club.
Given to huge names such as Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Kylian Mbappe, and Jude Bellingham across the award's history spanning over 20 years, it's considered one of the most coveted individual honours a player can earn, indicating that their achievements at such a young age are world-renowned.
Thanks to the growth of the women's game over the past decade, the Golden Girl award was established in 2022 alongside its long-standing counterpart to recognise the best young female player in global football.
The Sporting News details who the latest winner of the award is, who has won it in the past, and how the winner is decided each year.
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The winner of the 2025 Golden Boy award was Desire Doue of Paris Saint-Germain.
Throughout the 2025/26 season, Doue scored 16 goals and assisted 16 more across all competitions.
His watershed moment came in the UEFA Champions League final, when he led PSG to European glory by scoring a brace and laying on an assist in the 5-0 victory over Inter Milan.
Only having turned 20 in June, Doue is undoubtedly considered one of the most exciting young players around the world.
Still just 19 years old, Agyemang made headlines over the summer with her super-sub performance for England at the Women's Euro 2025. She scored twice off the bench in the knockout stage and converted her effort in the shootout against Spain in the final, helping the Lionesses win the title.
Agyemang, who is on loan at Women's Super League club Brighton from Arsenal, tore her ACL in October while on international duty, and is likely to miss at least a year.
She won the award over nominees including Lily Yohannes (Lyon/USA), Giulia Galli (Roma/Italy), and Wieke Kaptein (Chelsea/Netherlands) among others.
Since its inception in 2003, the Golden Boy and Golden Girl awards have been given out by the Italian sports publication Tuttosport.
While Tuttosport arrange the award's presentation, they alone do not decide the winner. Instead, a panel of 50 journalists from across Europe are among those who vote for the award.
The voting pool includes journalists from varying sports publications across Europe, including Bild (Germany), Blick (Switzerland), A Bola (Portugal), L'Equipe (France), France Football (France), Marca (Spain), Mundo Deportivo (Spain), Ta Nea (Greece), Sport Express (Russia), De Telegraaf (Netherlands), and The Times (England). The exact writers voting from these publications are not revealed publicly.
Each voter lists 10 players, pulled from an algorithm-driven computer-generated pool of 100 nominees, ranked in order of their perceived candidacy to win. A point tally of descending value is then given to each player determined by their positioning on the ballot. For example, a first-place vote would garner 10 points, a 2nd-place vote nine points, and so on down to one point for a 10th-place vote. The point totals from all 50 ballots are added up, and the winner is the individual with the most points.
The selection period is across a calendar year, instead of a traditional European season. Thus, for example, Doue's 2025 win was for the 2025 calendar year, not the 2024/25 European season.
Additionally, the Golden Boy Web award is chosen solely by online votes, largely made up of fans from across the world.
This came into play in 2025, as 18-year-old Lamine Yamal is no longer eligible to win after being the 2024 recipient. The young Spaniard would likely have been the winner had he been among the nominees.