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2023 has been an incredible year for Jude Bellingham, particularly the latter half of of it, and his performances have been rewarded in the shape of the Golden Boy Award, which is handed out by the Italian newspaper Tuttosport.
The 20-year-old is starting to hoover up the individual awards, having won France Football’s Kopa Trophy just a few weeks prior. There wasn’t really any doubt that he was going to win both of these honours, but this prodigious success naturally makes fans start to wonder how long it will be until he wins the big one, the Ballon d’Or.
If Bellingham extends his rich vein of form at Real Madrid and for England, then he will definitely be in the running when the award comes around again next year. Does the fact that he has won the Golden Boy award offer any real indication as to his Ballon d’Or hopes, though?
The Golden Boy award started back in 2003 and a winner has been crowned every single year since then. Bellingham is the 21st kid to claim the award, but incredibly, only one of his predecessors has ever gone on to win the Ballon d’Or.
When you look at the names on the list of Golden Boy winners, you would be right to assume that will change over the next few years. Players like Pedri, Gavi, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe are recent winners, and now that Bellingham is in the mix, any of them could feasibly hoist the Ballon d’Or aloft across their careers. Many would say Haaland should have won the most recent one.
No prizes for guessing who managed to win both awards. It’s Lionel Messi, obviously. He was crowned the Golden Boy back in 2005 when he burst onto the scene with Barcelona and shocked the world with his dribbling and close control. Four years later, he would win his first of eight Ballon d’Or awards.
Every Golden Boy award winner
Given the Ballon d’Or became a competition almost entirely contested by Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, it is fair to wonder why he has not matched Messi’s achievement of winning both. After all, the pair have won 13 of the 15 editions of the Ballon d’Or since 2008.
There were three editions where Ronaldo was eligible to be the winner of the Golden Boy award, and he was narrowly beaten each time. Rafael van der Vaart who won the inaugural edition in 2003 before Ronaldo’s Manchester United teammate Wayne Rooney was honoured the following year. Before the defining footballing rivalry had really ignited, Messi bested Ronaldo in 2005. After that, it was the Ballon d’Or or nothing for the Portuguese winger.
It is no secret that Ronaldo was a talent which Man Utd had to mould in his early years at the club, so it is perhaps not a huge shock that he never won the award. He became a record-breaking individual force slightly later in his career than Messi did.
As mentioned above, there are a handful of recent Golden Boy winners that you would absolutely back to win the Ballon d’Or soon. It is widely believed that 2023 was Messi’s last, and Ronaldo won’t win another. As for other recent winners, you can rule Karim Benzema and Luka Modric out too. 2024 should be a new Ballon d’Or winner, and it may well be another from the Golden Boy winners list.
