Marcus Rashford, Renato Sanchez, Kylian Mbappe, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Gabriel Jesus all form part of the nominees for the 2017 Tuttosport European Golden Boy award.

The prestigious accolade has been running since 2003, when it was established by Italian newspapaper Tuttosport, and previous winners include Rafael van der Vaart, Wayne Rooney, Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero.

Bayern Munich star Renato Sanches will be one of the favourites for the award, and could be in line to become the first player to retain the award having clinched the trophy last year.

Donnarumma is currently leading the voting polls with eight percent of the total votes going in his favour and the teenager has already made history with both AC Milan and the Italian national team, and he could soon join the exclusive list of Golden Boy Award winners.

Monaco rising star Kylian Mbappe is in second spot on the list with 7% of total votes being casted inches favour, while Rashford and Jesus have 3%,  and Sanches has 1% of the votes.

The Golden Boy is an award that is given by sports journalists to a young football player playing in Europe, perceived to have been the most impressive during a calendar year. All nominees have to be under the age of 21 and play in Europe’s top tier.

Each juror is allowed to nominate five players, and will allocate ten points to the player that they view as the most impressive, seven points for second, five for third, three for fourth, and one point for the fifth-most impressive starlet respectively.

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