Quick off the heels of his nomination for the 2019 Golden Boy award, Matteo Guendouzi has earned inclusion on the shortlist for this year’s Kopa Trophy.
Organised by France Football, the Kopa trophy, like the Golden Boy award, is presented to the best player in the under-21 category. Unlike the Tuttosport sponsored gong, it’s open to those who play outside of Europe.
Up against the likes of Jadon Sancho, Matthijs de Ligt and Joao Felix, it’s fair to say that Guendouzi is an outsider for the award, which was won in 2018 – its inaugural year – by Kylian Mbappe.
Bayer Leverkusen’s Kai Havertz and Villarreal’s Samuel Chukwueze, who once came very close to joining Arsenal, are the only players up for the Kopa that didn’t make the Golden Boy shortlist.
We’re very pleased for Matteo that his progress is being recognised by people who know a thing or two about top talent.
2019 Kopa Trophy nominees
Matteo Guendouzi (Arsenal)
Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund)
Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid)
Moise Kean (Everton)
Samuel Chukwueze (Villarreal)
Kang-in Lee (Valencia)
Matthijs de Ligt (Juventus)
Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid)
Kai Havertz (Bayer Leverkusen)
Andriy Lunin (Real Valladolid)
What has Moise Kean done to get in there? Apart from being an ineffectual sub at Everton.
and I hope he stays that way when Everton play us.
Moise Kean, Walcott, Iwobi, all to get on the scoresheet against us. Mark my words.
Congrats, Douzi. Soar to greater heights.
Mistake to play BOTH Guendouzi and Willock yesterday. Either one of IMO. Cebellos came on and made a difference but I thought we needed to keep granit (another mistake) We already had issues with their 5 across midfield. We were thin and de-syncopated from the front to midfield not helped by our dogma of playing out ponderously from the back and Leno’s poor ball management/decisions. I thought we should have frankly been 3 at the back with Holding starting over Luiz and Chambers maybe tucked in with Sokratis and Holding, then add Bellerin instead of Pepe (who was decent first… Read more »
Matthijs de Ligt or Jardon will win it but great to see Guendouzi being nominated although this is the first time i hear about this reward. Nevertheless, he still have much to learn and hopefully he can be an important player for us in midfield, of course without Unai. #emeryout
Emery Out! Douzi deserves to delelop under the tutorage of a better manager, especially one focussed on fast attacking football.
That said, this lad is soon poised to rule the midfield in quite a Xaviesque way! He reminds me of a young fit Tomas Rosicky