Paris Saint-Germain's World Cup-winning forward Kylian Mbappe emerged the inaugural winner of the Kopa Trophy on Monday, December 3, after seeing off the trio of Christian Pulisic and Roma winger Kluivert at the award night.
The newly-created Ballon d'Or equivalent for U21 player saw 19-year-old emerge the first winner after helping PSG win the Ligue 1 title in his first season at the club, before scoring four times for France as Les Bleus won the World Cup for a second time at Russia.
Fellow Ligue 1 player Houssem Aouar of Lyon, as well as Serie A starlets Gianluigi Donnarumma and Patrick Cutrone were all nominated for the award.
On the other hand, youngsters like Trent Alexander-Arnold, Amadou Haidara of Salzburg, Groningen's Ritsu Doan and Rodrygo Goes of Santos were all in the running for the award.
Interestingly, the youngster Mbappe is the only player on the shortlist for the Kopa Trophy, who was also nominated for the prestigious Ballon d'Or prize.
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