NXGN 2026: Barcelona duo Lamine Yamal and Sydney Schertenleib crowned football's best teenage wonderkids

Yamal has been crowned the winner of NXGN for the third time following his successes in both 2024 and 2025, with the 18-year-old the only player in the 11-year history of NXGN to have won on more than one occasion. Yamal's ascension has seen him not just become the outstanding young player on the planet, but perhaps the best player in the world already following another superb 12 months for the Spain international.

His performances for Barca, particularly those in the Champions League, saw him finish second in the 2025 Ballon d'Or voting, and Yamal has continued to be the most decisive figure in the Blaugrana line up as they chase titles in both La Liga and in Europe.

While Yamal again sits atop the NXGN tree, the top of the list is wholly familiar as, for the second successive year, the top three was completed by Chelsea winger Estevao and Yamal's Barcelona team-mate, Pau Cubarsi. Estevao has been able to translate his superb performances for Palmeiras into the Premier League following his summer arrival at Stamford Bridge, while Cubarsi continues to be the leading young defender in world football having been part of the Barca first team for over two years.

The top five is rounded out by Real Madrid forward Franco Mastantuono and Bayern Munich attacker Lennart Karl, while sixth place is taken by the Premier League's youngest-ever goal-scorer, Arsenal's Max Dowman.

On the women's side, Schertenleib has climbed from finishing third in 2025 to top spot after her development took another leap in Catalunya over the past year. The Switzerland international impressed while making her major tournament bow on home soil at Euro 2025, and she has carried the confidence those performances gave her into her club displays.

Schertenleib narrowly held off United States and Lyon midfielder Lily Yohannes, who ranked second, and Sweden striker Felicia Schroder, who plays her club football for Hacken and placed in third. Schertenleib's Barca team-mate, Clara Serrajordi, came fourth ahead of fifth-placed Claudia Martinez, the Washington Spirit forward the first of three NWSL players to crack the top 10 on the women's side.

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