World Soccer - UK (2020-11)

FROM THE

ASSISTANT

EDITOR

Golden Boy

shortlist

The final 40 contenders for the Golden Boy

award, a prize for Europe’s best young

footballer, have been revealed.

Voted for by a panel of European sports

publications, the shortlist for the award is

essentially a who’s who of the continent’s best

young talent, with previous winners including

Wayne Rooney, Lionel Messi, Paul Pogba and

Kylian Mbappe. The final 40 for 2020 are:

“If you look at that schedule, it isn’t showing any care

forplayers’physicalwelfare.”

It is difficult to disagree with Tottenham defender

EricDier.Tosaythatgamesarecomingthickandfast

thisseasonisanunderstatement,asfootballattempts

torecoverfromtheimpactofCOVIDbysqueezingin

as many matches as possible. As Keir Radnedge points

outonpage14,theplayersneedprotecting.

The games keep on coming though, and we’ve tried

to keep across all the major ones in the coming weeks.

Starting with the Champions League. In the first

of two issues previewing the 2020-21 edition, Nick

Bidwellpicksouttheplayersthatcouldmakeaname

forthemselvesinthisseason’scompetition(page32),

and poses ten questions lingering

over the teams (page 42).

There is more international

actiontoo,withtheEuro

play-offs (page 72) and World

Cup2022qualifyingupdates

from Asia, Africa, South America

and CONCACAF (page 80).

Of course, what happens on the pitch is just a

sideshow to whatreallymattersinmodernfootball:

the transfer window. As well as our usual round-up

oftheinsandoutsfromaroundtheworld(page18),

we’vepickedoutthe30movesthathavecaughtour

eyethissummer(page58),andtakenacloserlook

into the move that didn’t happen: Leo Messi’s failed

attempt to leave Barcelona. Sid Lowe explains how

the saga played out on page 54.

Overall, if there is a theme to this issue, it is talent;

from picking out the exciting youngsters heading to

the top (Chris Richards, page 62), to revealing how

the older established

stars got there (Robert

Lewandowski, page 20;

Blaise Matuidi, page 46).

We hope you enjoy.

Jamie Evans, Assistant Editor

ITALY

p

If there is

a theme to

this issue, it

is talent

Champions League winner...Alphonso Davies

THEWORLD THIS MONTH