A Spaniard in every decade. This Monday the newspaper Tuttosport named Pedri as the new ‘Golden Boy’, an award with which they award what is considered among several European newspapers as the best football player on the Old Continent in the last year.
The canary joins an exclusive club of promises that Rafa Van der Vaart opened in 2003 and which includes authentic living legends (Messi, Agüero …) with currently absolute elite players (Pogba, Sterling …) , the great wayward star, Balotelli, or those chosen to dominate the football of these 20s such as Mbappé or Haaland. This includes two more Spaniards, both midfielders and who have played a decisive role in the past decades.. Pedri forms a luxury midfielder of ‘golden boys’ together with Cesc Fabregas and Isco since this November 22.
Cesc, after Messi
Even with Fàbregas wearing his Arsenal shirt, Cesc was the fourth Golden Boy in history after the aforementioned Van der Vaart, Wayne Rooney and his partner at La Masía, Leo Messi.
Trained at the Blaugrana academy, Arsenal became his shuttle. Wenger knew how to detect his talent, attracted him to London and gave him the keys to the middle of the Gunner team in his teens since 2004. In 2006, already established as a holder with just 18 years and already international, he won the award.
ENRIQUE MARCARIAN (REUTERS)
After a long spell at Arsenal, he returned to Barcelona, where the excess of talent in the center of the field did not let him shine as much as expected.. Same ‘problem’ that he found in the National Team on certain occasions, although always being fixed in the best section in the history of La Roja.
After a remarkable stage at Chelsea, where he enjoyed among others under the command of Jose Mourinho, the Catalan hurries at the age of 34 the last blows of his remarkable football in Monaco. One of the best midfielders of the 2000 and 2010.
Talent from Malaga
Another midfielder and the most attacking of the three. Isco was proclaimed the winner and took the award to Malaga. The Spaniard took the award in 2012 just before making his jump to Real Madrid for 30 million euros. Before, he already shone as a Malaguista in the Champions League.
At Real Madrid, Isco has more than demonstrated his talent. The Malaga player played and was important in Ancelotti’s first stage and also in the year of the historic Liga-Champions League double (second in a row) where he found his place playing behind Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo in the 4-1-2-1-2 of Zidane. That campaign scored what is considered perhaps the most important goal of his career in the Champions League semi-final return leg against Atlético de Madrid to kill the tie after Benzema’s much-remembered dribble.
JON NAZCA (REUTERS)
Although he is just 29 years old, Isco is going through a valley in his career and has not been able to settle at Real Madrid for several seasons. The Spaniard ended up losing the favor of Zidane and has not managed to win the position with Ancelotti with whom this season he has played just 176 minutes spread over seven games.
Successor of the Bravo
Guerin Sportivo gave a trophy with the same criteria from 1978 to 2017. Pedri was left without him for time, but other Spaniards do appear in the list of winners. In the mid-80s, Emilio Butragueño took it twice as the only pure national attacker to win this award.
In 92 Pep Guardiola succeeded him to expand the roster of midfielders and eight years later the award went to Iker Casillas. In 2006, Cesc signed up for the double like Isco in 2013. The other Spaniard within the club, of course, another midfielder: Sergio Busquets, winner in 2009.