Verts: How did the Golden Boy overlook Maza?
Nominated for the Kopa Trophy for Best Young Player at the Ballon d'Or, Ibrahim Maza has been overlooked by another jury...
Although he is one of the ten players in the running for the prestigious Kopa Trophy for Best Young Player, awarded alongside the Ballon d'Or, the Algerian international has been forgotten by the Golden Boy Award... another prize aimed at players under 21 years old.
Indeed, despite there being no fewer than 25 players selected, Ibrahim Maza is not among them! Yet, the Golden Boy Award, a trophy established by the Italian newspaper Tuttosport, is older than that of France Football, as it has existed since 2003, compared to 2018.
The first distinction between the two is that the 10 nominees for the Kopa Trophy are selected by the editorial team of France Football, after extensive deliberations, while for the Golden Boy, the list is compiled from the Golden Boy Benchmark Football Index, a tool designed to evaluate the performances of players under 21 competing in the top European leagues.
The reliability of this tool is clearly called into question, as among the 101 players listed, there is no Ibrahim Maza, while for example, Edwin Austbo, a Danish U21 international playing in the Championship with West Ham, is included...
The second distinction concerns the voting for the Golden Boy, where journalists from ten different European countries make the decision, whereas for the Kopa Trophy, it is living former Ballon d'Or winners who vote!
One might think they favor players representing European nations; however, Ayoub Bouaddi (Morocco) and Yan Diomandé (Ivory Coast) are also included...
DZfoot
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