Official: Barcelona midfielder Pedri wins the 2021 Golden Boy Award
Tuttosport revealed the winner of the prestigious award on Monday
Barcelona midfielder has been named as the Golden Boy winner for 2021 by Tuttosport, the award for the best player under 21 in Europe.
Pedri received 318 points in the voting, with Jude Bellingham in second place fetching 119 points. The gap of 199 between the top two is the biggest in the prize's history.
The Spain international had a fine season with Barça, becoming a key player in Ronald Koeman's team and also earning international recognition under Luis Enrique.
In total, he made 73 appearances last season (52 with Barça and 21 for various Spain teams) and played over 5,000 minutes, limiting his time off in the summer.
That's led to a bad run of injuries and he's been limited to just four games (310 minutes) so far in the current campaign and remains sidelined with fitness issues.
Pedri has become the second Barça player to win the award after Lionel Messi in 2005. Cesc Fabregas and Kun Aguero won it in 2006 and and 2007 but not as Barça players.
Last year's winner was Erling Haaland, while Joao Felix, Matthijs de Ligt an Kylian Mbappe are also recent winners. Haaland beat off competition from Ansu Fati.
Pedri is due to collect the award at a ceremony in Turin on Dec. 13, although Barça have a friendly in Saudi Arabia against Boca Juniors to honour Diego Maradona the following day.
