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Seems like a pretty good thing to have on your roster. Entering the 2024-25 season, we figured that Turkish teenager Kenan Yildiz was going to have a much, much bigger role at Juventus than he did the previous campaign. On a squad that was changing under a new manager and had plenty of roster turnover, Yildiz was one of the few holdovers in attack and looking like he was on the brink of becoming one of the squad?s best and most important players.
What we didn?t expect was for somebody like Belgian winger Samuel Mbangula to steal the show alongside Yildiz when Juventus kicked off their new season back in August.
A couple of months later, Yildiz and Mbangula, who are 19 and 20 years old, respectively, can now say they?ve garnered some very notable recognition. Both Yildiz and Mbangula were part of the 25-man group of finalists for the 2024 Golden Boy Award, an honor handed out by Tuttosport each season to recognize the best Under-21 player that plays his club football in Europe. They are the latest Juventus players to be included in the annual list, with Paul Pogba and former Juve defender Matthijs de Ligt having won the award in 2013 and 2018, respectively. Yildiz and Mbangula, the latter being a ?wild card? selection, are the only players from Serie A on the list for the award ? which was won by Real Madrid and England midfielder Jude Bellingham in 2023 ? that will be handed out later this year.
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