The five-man Golden Boy shortlist has been revealed

The final five man shortlist for the prestigious Golden Boy award has been announced with England starlet Trent Alexander-Arnold making the cut.

The highly-coveted accolade, which was founded by Italian sports newspaper Tuttosport in 2003, is awarded to the best player under the age of 21 in one of Europe’s top tiers.

Alexander-Arnold has been rewarded for his fine form and ascent into the Liverpool starting XI with a nomination for this year’s award, and he has been joined by some of the continent’s most promising youngsters.

The England international helped Liverpool reach the Champions League final last season where he started in the 3-1 defeat against La Liga giants Real Madrid, while he also made Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the World Cup.

Alongside the Merseysider is Ajax defender Matthijs de Ligt, Roma winger Justin Kluivert, AC Milan striker Patrick Cutrone and Real Madrid teenager Vinicius Junior.

The winner of the 2017 award, Kylian Mbappe, has been a surprise omission from the final shortlist after he made the cut for the initial 40-man shortlist.

However, the Italian outlet have excluded the World Cup winner from their final five despite the 19-year-old being favourite to clinch the award for consecutive seasons.

The award will now be determined by 30 journalists from 20 European sport publications including the likes of Marca, Bild and  L’Equipe.

This is the 16th instalment of the award and previous winners include Sergio Aguero, Paul Pogba, Lionel Messi and Wayne Rooney; should Alexander-Arnold clinch the award he will be the first Englishman to win it since Raheem Sterling in 2014.

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