Pedri have just won the title of best young player in the world, as he was the winner of the Golden Boy trophy this year. The Barça’s midfielder is the successor of Xavi and Iniesta and this award confirms is magnificent debut not only in the so-called Blaugran, but also serving the Spanish national team.

With this promising start of career, Pedri is one of the most valuable young player who ever won the Golden Boy title. There are only two players above him in this particular perspective: João Félix and Kyllian Mbappé.

The Portuguese star had a market value of €100 million when he was distinguish with the trophy in 2019 (after a sensational transfer to Atletico from Benfica, for €120 million), while the French star of PSG was value at €90 million when he did the same two years before (also in the context of a €145 million transfer to PSG from Mónaco).

There is no need to say that you have to keep in mind the inflation rate (and other factors, of course) when you have to analyse the table of All Time Golden Boy Winners and their respective market values given by the specialized website TransferMarkt.

For instante, Messi was only worth €5 million when he won the Golden Boy trophy.

All time winners

But you have also to take into consideration that biggest clubs are now pricing the future of a player at higher valuations, reflecting the greater risks they are willing to take to find the next Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo in early stages. This is a recent trend in the football industry, as you can see in this table.

Before Mbappé, the biggest market value of a Golden Boy winner belongs to Wayne Rooney: the English striker won the trophy in 2004 with a valuation of €37 million.

The question is: with the pandemic still afecting the football industry, are the current valuations stretched?