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The Golden Boy award is one of the most prestigious awards. It is given to the best players under the age of 21 who are plying their trade in Europe's top leagues.
Sergio Aguero, Wayne Rooney, Cesc Fabregas and Lionel Messi have all won the award. In recent years, Matthijs de Ligt, Joao Felix and Kylian Mbappe have all won the Golden Boy award with Barcelona’s Pedri the latest winner.
The award doesn't always guarantee a prosperous future for the winner. While players like Messi, Fabregas and Rooney all lived up to their potential, other players didn’t last in the limelight after being crowned the Golden Boy.
Here are three such players who failed to live up to the Golden Boy billing.
#1 Mario Balotelli, 2010 Golden Boy winner
At his best, Mario Balotelli was one of the best strikers in world football. The Italian was one of Italy's brightest strikers and completed a €29.5 million move to Manchester City.
At City, he showed his quality, scoring 30 goals for the club and assisting the iconic Aguero winner against Queens Park Rangers in 2013.
After clashing with Mancini in the 2012-13 season, the Italian returned to the Serie A to play for AC Milan, where he had a decent first season.
Another clash with the head coach, this time Filippo Inzaghi, saw him leave the club for Liverpool in 2014 for €20 million. It proved to be a move that didn't work out for both parties as the Italian only scored one league goal for the club.
He was always the talk of controversy and lacked discipline, ultimately the downfall of his career.
The 2010 Golden Boy has since shuffled between clubs. He has played for Nice, Olympique de Marseille, Brescia and Monza. He currently plays for Adana Demirspor in Turkey.
#2 Alexander Pato, 2009 Golden Boy winner
Alexander Pato’s fall in football is one of the saddest. The Brazil international broke out as a young player in 2006 after a brilliant season with Corinthians.
This earned him a move to AC Milan in 2007 for €24 million. He lit up Serie A and started gaining more attention from the rest of Europe.
Pato was a raw talent. He was a great dribbler and very quick, which reminded some fans of the Brazilian Ronaldo. He was the Brazilian Golden Boy and was meant to be the next big thing for the Selecao.
Unfortunately for him, in an attempt to increase his weight and adapt to the physicality of European football, the Brazilian lost a massive chunk of his pace.
This, coupled with prolonged injury spells and poor form, led to him fading from the limelight. He returned to Corinthians in 2013. Since then, his only appearances in European football have been failed loan spells at Chelsea and Villarreal.
The 33-year-old striker currently plays for Orlando City in the United States.
#3 Mario Gotze, 2011 Golden Boy winner
Mario Gotze hit the peak of football supremacy when he scored the goal that gave Germany their fourth World Cup in 2014 and broke Argentine hearts.
The then-Bayern Munich player was predicted to live up to the expectations of the Golden Boy award he won in 2011. Unfortunately, that wasn't to be for the Germany international.
Gotze broke out in Europe after an impressive performance for the Borussia Dortmund side that won back-to-back Bundesliga titles. He was a classic number 10 who thrived between the lines and didn't shy away from scoring.
His performance in Dortmund earned him a dream move to Bayern Munich for €34 million. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be in Bavaria. Gotze started well, scoring against his former side at Signal Iduna Park.
A streak of consistent injuries and poor form in his second season left him falling down the pecking order. He returned to Dortmund in 2018 but failed to show the quality he possessed as a youngster at the club.
Gotze moved to Eredivisie side PSV Eindhoven in 2020 and played a decent role for the Dutch side that were considered title contenders.
Earlier in the summer, he completed a move back to Germany, this time to Eintracht Frankfurt.
