Ryan Sessegnon has said it feels “crazy” to be bracketed with Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford but he is determined to join them in the Premier League with Fulham next season.

The 17-year-old last week became the first player from outside the top flight to be shortlisted for the Professional Footballers’ Association Young Player of the Year Award. He is in the running with Kane, Rashford and the Manchester City trio of Ederson, Leroy Sané and Raheem Sterling.

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“It is crazy to be on a shortlist with those players but I’m just happy to be in and around those types of players,” Sessegnon said. “I just need to keep improving. It is credit to the team really, the way we play and ever since I made my debut. I know the club very well and I feel very comfortable playing for the club.”

Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham are among the elite clubs to have tracked Sessegnon’s progress but he remains focused on reaching the Premier League with Fulham. He has scored 14 goals in the Championship this season, with Slavisa Jokanovic’s team vying for automatic promotion after the club missed out in the play-offs last term.

“It would mean everything to go up with Fulham,” Sessegnon said. “It is the team that has made me a professional and it’s the team that has given me a chance. I think day by day, training session by training session and match by match I am improving and that’s all because of Slavisa really, so credit to him and to the club. It has been a dream of mine to play in the Premier League with Fulham. We are so very close I just want to get over the line now.”

Asked whether felt ready to make the step up, he said: “I’m not sure yet. I don’t think you can tell until you play in the Premier League. But I think I am improving with each game and I just want to keep learning.”

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Sessegnon, who collected five awards at the EFL Awards on Sunday, joined Fulham aged eight, along with his twin brother, Steven, who remains in the academy. He has made rapid progress since his first Fulham start in August 2016 and was called up to the England Under-21 squad last month after helping his country lift the European Under-19 championship last summer.

Jokanovic’s side are third in the Championship with three games remaining, starting with a trip to Millwall on Friday. Fulham made the play-off semi-finals in 2016-17 but were beaten over two legs by Reading. “Last season the heartbreak in the play-offs was a very sad moment for Fulham but this season we have come out very angry, very motivated to succeed this season and that’s we are doing,” Sessegnon said. “Hopefully we can do it through the automatics and if not we will do our best in the play-offs. We have one job and that’s to try and get promoted.”