Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Bruma & Adnan Januzaj nominated for 2014 Golden Boy award [divider]
Hakan Çalhanoğlu has been included in the 40-strong shortlist for the 2014 Golden Boy award.
The winner will be crowned as Europe’s best young player.
The award is open to players aged 21 and under and the winner is voted for by journalists from 30 newspapers around the world.
Çalhanoğlu was snapped up by Karlsruher aged just 15 and rose through the youth ranks before being promoted to the senior side towards the end of the 2011-12 team.
The Mannheim born youngster made a series of impressive performances but was unable to prevent KSC dropping into the 3. Liga.
Despite Karlsruher’s relegation HSV saw enough potential in the young midfielder to warrant a €2.5 million transfer in 2012.
The 20-year-old remained at KSC for another season as HSV ended up loaning him back to his former club.
The Turkish international shone at KSC, scoring 17 times and providing 12 assists in 36 appearances – the best performing U20 player in the league. Çalhanoğlu helped guide Kalsruher to win the league title and earn promotion back into the Bundesliga II.
The Turkish international scored 11 times and provided five assists in his breakthrough season for HSV before joining Bayer Leverkusen for £14.5 million this summer – setting a new transfer record for Turkish international.
Çalhanoğlu was named best young player of the 2013/14 season by leading German football magazine 11 Freunde.
The 20-year-old has five goals and six assists in 16 appearances for Bayer this season.
Galatasaray winger Bruma was also included in the Golden Boy shortlist.
The full shortlist:
Turkey: Bruma (Galatasaray)
Premier League: Calum Chambers (Arsenal), Kurt Zouma (Chelsea), John Stones (Everton), Raheem Sterling, Lazar Markovic, Divock Origi (Liverpool), Adnan Januzaj, Luke Shaw (Manchester United), Nabil Bentaleb, Eric Dier (Tottenham).
La Liga: Gerard Deulofeu (Sevilla), Aymeric Laporte (Athletic Bilbao), Sandro Ramirez, Munir El Haddai (Barcelona), Saúl Ñíguez (Atlético Madrid).
Serie A: Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo), Bernardeschi Franco (Fiorentina), Kingsley Coman (Juventus), Keita Baldé Diao (Lazio), Mateo Kovacic (Inter).
Bundesliga: Hakan Calhanoglu (Bayer Leverkusen), Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Gianluca Gaudino (Bayern Munich), Matthias Ginter (Borussia Dortmund), Julian Green (Hamburg), Maximilian Meyer (Schalke).
Ligue 1: Marquinhos, Adrien Rabiot (Paris Saint-Germain), Benjamin Mendy (Marseille), Lucas Ocampos (Monaco).
Eredivisie :Tonny Vilhena (Feyenoord), Jetro Willems (PSV), Arkadiusz Milik (Ajax).
Jupiler League: Dennis Praet, Alexander Mitrovic (Anderlecht).
Portugal: Oliver Torres (Porto)
Switzerland: Gonzalez (Basel)
Serbia: Nikola Ninkovic (Partizan Belgrade)
Slovenia: Luka Zahovic (Maribor)
