Desire fulfilled: Doue wins Golden Boy award

Last year was the year of Paris Saint-Germain. The Saints have established a reign over European football, and had it not been for the upset they suffered in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup final against Chelsea, we could have said the Parisians won everything.

Still, their dominance was ruthless, so it's no wonder their players are picking up individual awards left and right. A month and a half after Ousmane Dembele won the 2025 Ballon d'Or, his teammate Desire Doue has today been named 2025 Golden Boy.

Since 2003, the Turin newspaper Tuttosport has been handing out the award to the best player under the age of 21 based in Europe, and the shortlist announced 20 days ago included 25 names. Lamine Yamal wasn't one of them as he was the previous year's winner, but still, even with Barcelona's gem in the mix, Doue would have probably won it, considering the outstanding season he had with the Saints.

Namely, the 20-year-old won the Ligue 1, French Cup and Super Cup, and the Champions League, while the only "failure" was the aforementioned FIFA CWC loss to the Blues. He played 61 games in all competitions and recorded 16 goals and as many assists. In addition, he was Man of the Match in the UCL final, bagging a brace and recording an assist in a 5-0 win against Inter Milan.

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Doue won the accolade, leaving behind names like Arda Guler (Real Madrid), Ethan Nwaneri (Arsenal), Leny Yoro (Man United), Jobe Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund), and Kenan Yildiz (Juventus), among others.

At the same time, he became the fourth Frenchman to win the Golden Boy award after Paul Pogba (2013), Anthony Martial (2015), and Kylian Mbappe (2017).