By:Omar Jatta

Manchester United striker Anthony Martial has won the prize for Europe’s best young player: the 2015 Golden Boy award. The  French International was among 40 other young starlets including Manchester United teammates Luke Shaw and Adnan Januzaj, who were nominated for the award organised by Italian publication, Tuttosport, who first began the voting in 2003, involving journalists from 30 major newspapers across the continent, including L’Equipe (France), Marca (Spain) and The Times (England) now invited to join.

The award is specifically reserved for players under the age of 21 and the 20 year-old United striker had to fend off opposition from Bayern Munich’s
Kingsley Coman and Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin for the prize to succeed last year’s winner, Man City’s forward, Raheem Sterling, who won the accolade in 2014 while playing for Liverpool. Previous winners includes Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas, Sergio Aguero and Paul Pogba, with Wayne Rooney and Anderson the other United players who have also won the prize.Martial’s exciting rise in the calendar year of 2015 included a successful end to the season with Monaco who finished third inLigue 1, which prompted Manchester to spend over 60million pounds to lure him from the french club last summer. Since arriving at Old Trafford, things have been a bit pitchy. He enjoyed an excellent start at United, scoring 6 goals in his first 19 appearances, a promising start which earned him a first senior cap for France in September. However, as expected, life at the Theatre of dreams has not all been straight sailing, but he has shown enough potential for future stardom.