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Rashford, Sanches nominated for Golden Boy award

Matthew Childs / Reuters

The 2016 Golden Boy award contenders have been announced, highlighting the 40 nominees regarded as the most exciting Under-21 talents based in Europe.

Among those with a chance to collect the coveted prize are Manchester United's Marcus Rashford, Real Madrid's Marco Asensio, and Bayern Munich's Renato Sanches.

Previous winners include Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, and Paul Pogba.

The distinction was established by Italian newspaper Tuttosport in 2003, and Rashford could make it two straight gongs for Manchester United after Anthony Martial was voted the 2015 winner.

United is also the most decorated team in the award's history due to previous wins for Wayne Rooney (2004) and Anderson (2008).

Here are the 40 nominees for the 2016 Golden Boy award:

Dele Alli (Tottenham). Marco Asensio (Real Madrid), Leon Bailey (Racing Genk), Riechedly Bazoer (Ajax), Gabriel Boschilia (Monaco), Julian Brandt (Bayer Leverkusen), Andreas Christensen (Borussia Monchengladbach, on loan from Chelsea), Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich, on loan from Juventus), Ante Coric (Dinamo Zagreb), Amadou Diawara (Napoli), Mahmoud Dahoud (Gladbach), Danilo (Benfica), Moussa Dembele (Celtic), Ousmane Dembele (Borussia Dortmund) Gianluigi Donnarumma (AC Milan), Breel Embolo (Schalke), Carlos Fernandez (Sevilla), Gabigol (Inter), Aleksandr Golovin (CSKA Moscow), Demarai Gray (Leicester City), Marko Gruijic (Liverpool), Goncalo Guedes (Benfica), Alen Halilovic (Hamburg), Kelechi Iheanacho (Manchester City), Alex Iwobi (Arsenal), Viktor Kovalenko (Shakhtar Donetsk), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea), Lucas Hernandez (Atletico Madrid), Emanuel Mammana (Lyon), Nathan (Vitesse, on loan from Chelsea), Ruben Neves (Porto), Jules Ntcham (Genoa), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Renato Sanches (Bayern Munich), Jairo Riedewald (Ajax), Antonio Sanabria (Real Betis), Leroy Sane (Manchester City), Jonathan Tah (Leverkusen), Youri Tielemans (Anderlecht), Almamy Toure (Monaco)

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