Celtic striker Moussa Dembele has been named on the shortlist for the UEFA Golden Boy award.

Seen as the ‘Ballon d’Or for U21 players’, Dembele joins 39 of the best talents playing in European football today on the list organised by Italian publication Tuttosport.

National newspapers around Europe will nominate five players to win the award, awarding them points which vary on how impressive they think each young player has been over the last 12 months – 10 points for the most impressive, 7 points for second, 5 for third, 3 for fourth and 1 point for the fifth-most impressive nominee.

Adjudicating newspapers include BILD (Germany), Blick (Switzerland), A Bola (Portugal), l’Équipe (France), France Football (France), Marca (Spain), Mundo Deportivo (Spain), Ta Nea (Greece), Sport Express (Russia), De Telegraaf (Netherlands), and The Times (United Kingdom).

The award was introduced in 2003, with the inaugural winner being Rafael van der Vaart, then of Ajax. Other notable past winners include Wayne Rooney (2004), Lionel Messi (2005), Sergio Aguero (2007), Mario Gotze (2011) and Paul Pogba (2013). Last year’s winner was Anthony Martial.

In 2015/16, the 20-year-old Dembele enjoyed a breakout season with Fulham, scoring 17 goals and recording seven assists in 46 appearances across all competitions.

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He decided to make the move north and join Celtic upon the expiry of his Fulham contract and hasn’t looked back, scoring 12 goals in 16 games for the Hoops since signing, including a brace against Manchester City in the 3-3 Champions League draw last night as well as a hat-trick in the Glasgow Derby win over Rangers.

Other notable players nominated for this year’s award include Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea), Kelechi Iheanacho (Manchester City), Dele Alli (Tottenham), Demarai Gray (Leicester City), Alex Iwobi (Arsenal), Marco Asensio (Real Madrid) and Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich).