Marcus Rashford of Manchester United, Alex Iwobi of Arsenal and Dele Alli of Tottenham Hotspur are among the 40 nominees for the 2016 Golden Boy award, run by the Italian newspaper Tuttosport and awarded to Europe’s most impressive footballer under the age of 21. Last year’s winner was Anthony Martial, with Paul Pogba and Raheem Sterling other recent recipients.

The award, founded in 2003, relates to performances across a particular calendar year, with the winner decided by a panel of 30 journalists. Among the favourites this time round are Kingsley Coman and Renato Sanches of Bayern Munich, while Ousmane Dembélé of Borussia Dortmund and Gianluigi Donnarumma of Milan have also been extremely impressive.

In addition to Rashford, Iwobi and Alli, seven other UK-based players are nominated: Kelechi Iheanacho and Leroy Sané of Manchester City, Moussa Dembélé of Celtic, Marko Grujic of Liverpool, Demarai Gray of Leicester and Ruben Loftus-Cheek of Chelsea, as well as Nathan, on loan from Chelsea to Vitesse, and Andreas Christensen, on loan from Chelsea to Borussia Mönchengladbach.

The list in full:

Dele Alli (Tottenham), Marco Asensio (Real Madrid), Leon Bailey (Genk), Riechedly Bazoer (Ajax), Gabriel Boschilia (Monaco), Julian Brandt (Bayer Leverkusen), Carlos Fernandez (Sevilla), Andreas Christensen (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich), Ante Coric (Dinamo Zagreb), Amadou Diawara (Napoli), Mahmoud Dahoud (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Danilo Barbosa (Benfica), Moussa Dembélé (Celtic), Ousmane Dembélé (Dortmund), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Milan), Breel Embolo (Schalke), Gabriel Barbosa (Internazionale), Aleksandr Golovin (CSKA Moscow), Goncalo Guedes (Benfica), Demarai Gray (Leicester), Marko Grujic (Liverpool), Alen Halilovic (Hamburg), Kelechi Iheanacho (Manchester City), Alex Iwobi (Arsenal), Viktor Kovalenko (Shakhtar Donetsk), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea), Lucas Hernández (Atlético Madrid), Emanuel Mammana (Lyon), Nathan (Vitesse), Olivier Ntcham (Genoa), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Renato Sanches (Bayern Munich), Jairo Riedewald (Ajax), Rúben Neves (Porto), Tonny Sanabria (Real Betis), Leroy Sané (Manchester City), Jonathan Tah (Bayer Leverkusen), Youri Tielemans (Anderlecht), Almamy Touré (Monaco).