Ajax captain Matthijs de Ligt has won the 2018 Golden Boy award thus cementing him as the most promising player under the age of 21 in Europe.
By virtue of votes from an international panel (35 journalists from 20 nations), the assured defender powered to the award over fellow shortlisters Justin Kluivert, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Patrick Cutrone and Vinicius Junior.
Tuttosport tell us De Ligt had a “striking 75-point lead” over his nearest rival (Alexander-Arnold), though without knowing the precise ranking system used we can’t really tell if that’s profound or otherwise.
#GoldenBoy2018, il trionfo di #DeLigt https://t.co/RYT6obztfl
— Tuttosport (@tuttosport) 17 December 2018
De Ligt is the second Dutch player to win the prestigious youth award, following fellow Ajax alum Rafael van der Vaart’s success in the inaugural 2003 vote.
Kylian Mbappe won it last year and things have gone fairly well for him since, as they tend to do for Golden Boys.
Basically, we give it a year (tops) before De Ligt is a fully-fledged Barcelona player.