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Mbappe, Pulisic, Rashford among 25 contenders for 2017 Golden Boy award

REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

The shortlist featuring football's most promising young stars vying to win the 2017 Golden Boy award was revealed Tuesday, with prodigies Kylian Mbappe, Christian Pulisic, and Ousmane Dembele highlighting the group.

The award crowns Europe’s most impressive player under the age of 21, with the contenders expected to dominate the sport for the next decade.

Winners are voted on by a panel of 30 journalists selected by Italian newspaper Tuttosport. Renato Sanches claimed the prize in 2016, but the Portuguese international isn't in contention this year, presumably due to a lackluster season with Bayern Munich.

Instead, budding stars such as Gianluigi Donnarumma, Gabriel Jesus, and Marcus Rashford will attempt to become the latest to win the honour since its inception in 2003.

Other previous winners include Paul Pogba, Isco, Lionel Messi, and Wayne Rooney.

Full list of nominees:

Aaron Martin (Espanyol), Jean-Kévin Augustin (RB Leipzig), Rodrigo Bentacur, (Juventus), Steven Bergwijn (PSV Eindhoven), Dominic Calvert-Lewin, (Everton), Federico Chiesa (Fiorentina), Ousmane Dembele (Barcelona), Amadou Diawara (Napoli), Kasper Dolberg (Ajax), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Milan), Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City), Joe Gomez (Liverpool), Benjamin Henrichs (Bayer Leverkusen), Borja Mayoral (Real Madrid), Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain) Emre Mor (Celta Vigo) Reece Oxford (Borussia Monchengladbach), Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund) Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Allan Saint-Maximim (Nice) Dominic Solanke (Liverpool) Theo Hernandez (Real Madrid) Youri Tielemans (Monaco) Enes Unal (Villarreal), Kyle Walker-Peters (Tottenham).

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