Greenwood nominated for Kopa Trophy
Manchester United forward Mason Greenwood is one of 10 players who has been nominated for the 2021 Kopa Trophy.
The Kopa Trophy, organised by France Football magazine, which also hands out the Ballon d’Or, is an award presented to the best performing player under the age of 21.
Mason, who turned 20 on the first day of October, has been recognised after another stellar individual year.
The forward recovered from a slow start to 2020/21 to really hit his stride by the end of the campaign, finishing with 12 goals and six assists across all competitions.
Despite the additions of Cristiano Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho over the summer, Mason has played from the start in each of our seven league games so far, scoring against Leeds, Southampton and Wolves in August to claim the club’s Player of the Month prize.
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The 20-year-old isn’t the only Englishman to make the shortlist, with Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka and Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham also in contention.
The Bundesliga is heavily represented, with Bellingham’s Dortmund team-mate and USA international Giovanni Reyna featuring, along with Bayern Munich prodigy Jamal Musiala and Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz, both of Germany.
The ten nominees for the 2021 Kopa Trophy pic.twitter.com/1vmjs1RlBr
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) October 8, 2021
Jeremy Doku (Rennes and Belgium) and Pedri (Barcelona and Spain) impressed at Euro 2020 and take their place in the list, which is rounded out by Ajax and the Netherlands star Ryan Gravenberch and Portuguese full-back Nuno Mendes, who recently signed for Paris Saint-Germain.
The winner be selected by a panel of former Ballon d’Or recipients and announced at the annual France Football ceremony along with the main award.
Named after former French footballer Raymond Kopa, the award was first bestowed in 2018, when Kylian Mbappe was the clear winner, after helping France to the World Cup while still a teenager.
Juventus defender Matthijs De Ligt won the following year, with Sancho a close second. As with the Ballon d’Or, there was no winner in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Greenwood is still in the running for the Golden Boy award, a separate youth-focused prize which has previously been claimed by Wayne Rooney and Paul Pogba, among others.