Paris Saint-Germain and France international Kylian Mbappe has been reportedly out of the last five finalist in the Golden Boy Award an award he won last year. One of the five Golden Boy Award finalists for the best footballer of the year under 21, is Real Madrid Vinicius Junior, followed by Justin Kluivert (Roma), Matthijs de Ligt (Ajax), Patrick Cutrone (Milan) and Trent Alexander- Arnold (Liverpool).
The World Cup winner is surprisingly on the outside looking in as things stand, despite winning the award last year. The 19-year-old was looking to make history by becoming the first player to win the award for Europe's top talent under the age of 21 in back-to-back seasons.
Having won the 2017 prize, Mbappe was unsurprisingly on the list of the final 20 contenders for the 2018 award that was released earlier this month.
Kluivert and De Ligt are vying to become the second Dutchman to take home the award after Rafael van der Vaart, who won the first edition of the Golden Boy back in 2003. The award is voted on by a group of 35 journalists representing several of the largest newspapers in Europe.
Since winning the 2017 award Mbappe has considerably bolstered his case to take the prize again. The teenage star helped France lift the 2018 World Cup and won the tournament's Best Young Player award.
Mbappe has also started the 2018-19 campaign in blistering form, scoring 13 goals in 13 appearances in all competitions so far.
There is also an online fan vote being conducted by Tuttosport with another surprising result at the moment. Now it only remains to find out who will be the winner of the trophy to be awarded on December 17 in Turin, at the headquarters of the newspaper Tuttosport.
If Real Madrid teenager Vinicius Junior ends up being the chosen one, he would be the third Brazilian to win it after Anderson in 2008 and Pato in 2009.
The last player to win the gong was Kylian Mbappe, whilst Spanish players such as Isco and Cesc Fabregas have held the prestigious honour in the past. The Real Madrid midfielder won it in 2012 when he was still playing for Malaga. Some of football's biggest stars have won the award in the past, including Lionel Messi (2005), Sergio Aguero (2007), Paul Pogba (2013) and Raheem Sterling (2014).

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