Finalists Announced - Nike Destroys Adidas in 2017 Golden Boy Boots Battle
Update: Ousmane Dembelé (Nike), Kylian Mbappé (Nike) and Gabriel Jesus (Adidas) are the three finalists of the 2017 Golden Boy award, it has been announced.
The nominees for the 2017 Golden Boy award were announced yesterday by Italian newspaper Tuttosport. We take a look which brand makes the boots for the best young players on the planet, revealing that Nike dominates the battle for Europe's most impressive footballers under 21.
Gabriel Jesus, Marcus Rashford, Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé are among the 25 contenders to win the 2017 Golden Boy award.
2017 Golden Boy Nominees - Brands
Nike dominates the battle for Europe's best young players supplying 16 of the 25 footballers nominated for the award. Adidas follows second with eight players, while Puma has one player under contract (Milan's Gianluigi Donnarumma).
What is almost equally interesting is that only two Nike players nominated for the 2017 Golden Boy award are wearing high-top soccer boots (Borja Mayoral & Theo Hernandez), while 14 players are lacing up in low-cut Nike boots. The Nike Mercurial Vapor XI is worn by nine players in total, more than Adidas has under contract in total (only one Adidas player is wearing laceless boots, an no Adidas player is wearing the Adidas X 17+ Purespeed / Adidas Ace 17+ Purecontrol).
2017 Golden Boy - Boots
Aarón Martin, Espanyol - Nike Mercurial Vapor XI
Jean-Kévin Augustin, RB Leipzig - Adidas Nemeziz 17.1
Rodrigo Bentacur, Juventus - Adidas Ace 17.1 Primeknit
Steven Bergwijn, PSV Eindhoven - Adidas Nemeziz 17+ 360Agility
Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Everton - Nike Mercurial Vapor XI
Federico Chiesa, Fiorentina - Nike Mercurial Vapor XI
Ousmane Dembélé, Barcelona - Nike Mercurial Vapor XI
Amadou Diawara, Napoli - Nike Hypervenom Phantom III
Kasper Dolberg, Ajax - Adidas Nemeziz 17.1
Gianluigi Donnarumma, Milan - Puma One 17
Gabriel Jesus, Manchester City - Adidas X 17.1
Joe Gomez, Liverpool - Nike Tiempo Legend VII
Benjamin Henrichs, Bayer Leverkusen - Adidas Glitch
Borja Mayoral, Real Madrid - Nike Hypervenom Phantom III DF
Kylian Mbappé, Paris Saint-Germain - Nike Mercurial Vapor XI
Emre Mor, Celta Vigo - Nike Mercurial Vapor XI
Reece Oxford, Borussia Mönchengladbach - Nike Tiempo Legend VII
Christian Pulisic, Borussia Dortmund - Nike Mercurial Vapor XI
Marcus Rashford, Manchester United - Nike Hypervenom Phantom III
Allan Saint-Maximim, Nice - Nike Mercurial Vapor XI
Dominic Solanke, Liverpool - Adidas X 17.1
Theo Hernandez, Real Madrid - Nike Mercurial Superfly V
Youri Tielemans, Monaco - Nike Hypervenom Phantom III
Enes Ünal, Villarreal - Nike Mercurial Vapor XI
Kyle Walker-Peters, Tottenham - Adidas Glitch
2017 Golden Boy Nominees - XI
Are you happy with the 25 players nominated players for the 2017 Golden Boy award? Which players should have also made the list? Did you expect that two thirds of the players are sponsored by Nike? Let us know in the comments below.
