Grading the past Golden Boys

2008 Anderson

Big things were expected of Anderson

Another player who made a name for himself at youth level, Anderson was the Golden Ball winner at the 2005 FIFA U17 World Cup as his performances helped Brazil to a second place finish.

He starred with Porto for two seasons and earned a move to Manchester United in 2007. Despite being a regular starter at the onset of his United career, Anderson struggled for gametime as the seasons progressed and found himself totally out of favour following Ferguson's departure.

He made a total of 32 appearances in his last four seasons at Manchester United and this is a far cry from what was expected when he was signed.

He has just eight caps for Brazil, with none coming since 2008 (the year of his Golden Boy win) and currently represents Adana Demirspor (he is just 30) in the Turkish league, which is a disappointing finale to a career which should have been in its prime by now.

Verdict - Flop

2009 Bojan Krkic

Bojan in action for Stoke City

The man responsible for breaking Messi's youth team records at Barcelona, a lot was expected from the man dubbed 'The next Raul', but unfortunately Bojan came into prominence at a time when it was virtually impossible to break into the Barcelona attack owing to the huge talent on display.

Pep Guardiola let him go amidst speculations of indiscipline and he spent the next years playing for multiple clubs across different leagues without much impact. He last played for Alaves on a loan deal in 2017/2018 but the deal was not made permanent.

Verdict - Flop