About the Winner of the Golden Boy Award — 2025

On the eve of November, it was reported that Désiré Doué had been named the best young player in Europe for 2025. It was the end of December when the 20-year-old wing of PSG was awarded — and this is really a huge achievement!


Over the past few years, the Golden Boy award went to Gavi, Pedri, Kylian Mbappé, Jude Bellingham — and they all became major stars while being very young. Last year’s winner was Lamine Yamal.


The Golden Boy award is usually awarded only once to a player, so Yamal cannot get it again, and Doué did not have serious competition.
The PSG wing became the fourth Frenchman to be awarded this award. Prior to Doué, his fellow-countrymen Anthony Martial, Paul Pogba and Mbappé have held the title of the best young player of Europe. Only Spanish footballers have more such titles. Thus, France continues to cultivate talented players.


But Doué is only half-French — because his dad is from Ivory Coast — however, Doué preferred to represent France as a national team — since he grew up in France, and thus began to play football.
He was admitted to the Rennes academy at age 5, and spent 10 years in it before moving to the reserve team of the red-and-black club. However, Doué outshone the many young talents that exist in France. Maybe, his upbringing in a sports family helped — since his dad taught him discipline and a lot of hard work from an early age. And, by the way, Doué’s siblings and cousins are footballers too, and his uncle is a referee.


Young Doué did not always succeed — at 11 years of age, he even thought of quitting football — but he was encouraged not to do so — and six years later, he already transferred to the first team of Rennes. For Doué, the 2022/23 season was the ticket to big football.
First, Bruno Genesio, the head coach of the red-and-blacks, was the first to believe in the young Frenchman. Doué debuted in Ligue 1 on Aug 13th, 2022 in a match against Lorient. Six days later, he scored his first goal at the senior level in a match against Brest. The next time Doué scored in the French Championship was in November.
Between those events, the Rennes academy product scored in the Europa League against Dynamo Kyiv, and became the youngest French scorer in European competitions — at that time he was only 17 years and 4 months old.


Getty Images – mirror.co.uk

Doué had a good first season with the main team: he appeared in 34 games, and scored 4 goals and made 1 assist. Of course, further progress was expected from the player, due to his development. The next season, Doué’s productivity increased to 4 goals and 6 assists in 42 games. Following that, PSG and Bayern fought for the player.


Doué’s parents had contact with both teams — but they allowed their son to make the decision alone regarding what team he wanted to continue to develop in. He chose PSG — and in the summer of 2024, he moved to PSG for 50 million euros — and this was inspired by Luis Enrique’s project.
Luis Enrique built a new team in Paris after Kylian Mbappe left — and he focused on youth — which fit the young Frenchman perfectly. It later turned out that he made the correct choice — he remained in his home country — he joined a coach that could help bring the best qualities of the young player — and help him grow.


Doué’s first season with PSG was a breakthrough — on average he played 55 minutes per match — not that much, but overall he participated in 61 games, and scored 16 goals — and provided 16 assists.
Doué needed some time to adjust — he started scoring for PSG in December — but with each match, he became a more important player for the team. The young winger became a star of the Coupe de France — and scored in four consecutive games — and provided four assists — and two assist doubles. In Ligue 1, Doué did not score as often — but he scored important goals — and included the winner against Angers.

The main competition for the Frenchman was the Champions League — Doué scored five goals and provided four assists — and became the best young player in the UCL. The Champions League final against Inter was the largest match in the winger’s career for PSG — in the match he scored a brace and an assist. Doué became the third-youngest player to score a brace in a UCL final — and he achieved this at the age of 19 years and 11 months.

Following that, Doué performed just as well at the Club World Cup — where he also received the award for the best young player of the tournament. After that — there were almost no doubts about who would receive the Golden Boy award. Other excellent players were listed on the shortlist — but Doué won the treble — and contributed directly to it.

Statistics show how influential the Frenchman was on the team’s play. Last season, he generated a goal contribution every 105.8 minutes on average — the third-best figure at PSG. Doué demonstrated himself to be both a goal-scorer — and a playmaker — and provided 75 key passes in Ligue 1 for the season — only Fabian Ruiz and Ousmane Dembele had more.

In terms of expected goals created from open play per match (2.64) — Désiré was the best among all players in the top-5 European leagues. The Parisians used Doué in their attacks — 8.3 times per game on average — which is the second-most times in the team behind Dembele. According to many different criteria — Désiré was the second-best player at PSG — after Dembele — and therefore it all adds up: Dembele is the Ballon d’Or winner — Doué is the Golden Boy award winner.

Duet – Golden Boy Awards – yimg.com

The Frenchman has two main characteristics. First — versatility. He can play on both flanks in attack — and as an attacking midfielder — and he achieves results equally well everywhere. Second — dribbling. He was the best player in Ligue 1 last season in terms of dribble attempts per match (6.6) — and successful dribbles (2.9).

Doué plays with the ball amazingly well — for which he was nicknamed the “new Neymar” — which is particularly symbolic since Neymar previously played for PSG as well. But unlike his predecessor — the Frenchman also defends back — in Ligue 1 last season — he had an average of 2.1 tackles per match — which is the second-best in the league.

Overall — Doué has several advantages that allow him to achieve a higher level still — taking into account that he is only 20 years old. Unfortunately — in the current season — the Frenchman has suffered from injuries — so it is difficult to determine whether he will be able to sustain a high level of performance — but he definitely deserved to be named the best young player in Europe this year.