Twenty players have been removed from the Golden Boy shortlist as the list of candidates gets cut down to eighty players.
Three of the 20 players that were cut from the shortlist were Portuguese - but 8 Portuguese players still remain in contention for the prestigious award.
Previously, there were ten Portuguese players on the 100 strong shortlist, half of the which plied their trade at Benfica last season, including £100million-rated forward Joao Felix, defensive midfielder Florentino Luis and central midfielder Gedson Fernandes. All three were very much integral to the Benfica team that won the Primeira Liga last season.
Joao “Jota” Filipe and striker Jose Gomes were the other two Benfica players that were on the list, while Porto had the one representative - centreback Diogo Queiros, who won the UEFA Youth League with his club last campaign.
The other 4 Portuguese players that previously made the cut were based outside the country, on the books of Manchester United (Diogo Dalot), Watford (Domingos Quina), Lille (Rafael Leao) and Mesaque Dju (West Ham).
However, the trio of Diogo Queiros (FC Porto), Florentino Luis (Benfica) and Jose Gomes (also Benfica) have been removed from contention.
Interestingly though, Diogo Leite, who also won the UEFA Youth League as Queiros’ centreback partner and even featured on a few occasions for Porto, has now been added to the 80-man shortlist, having missed out on the 100-man shortlist a couple of months ago.
It’s a deserved inclusion for the Portuguese centreback - but it comes as a surprise to see him included after seeing him be previously overlooked.
Ruben Vinagre who, despite featuring much more heavily in the English Premier League than both Mesaque Dju and Domingos Quina,isn’t on the shortlist.
The full list of Portuguese nominations are therefore Joao Felix, Gedson Fernandes and Joao “Jota” Filipe (all of Benfica), Diogo Leite (Porto), Diogo Dalot (Manchester United), Domingos Quina (Watford), Mesaque Dju (West Ham) and Rafael Leao (Lille).
You can vote for who you think should win the award via the link provided HERE.