NATIONAL Under-19 striker Luqman Hakim Shamsudin has been nominated for the Golden Boy award.
The 18-year-old, named as one of Guardian's 60 best young footballers in the world last year, made the 80-nominee list, comprising up-and-coming football stars.
The other nominees are Manchester United's Mason Greenwood, Bayern Munich's Alphonso Davies, Chelsea's Callum Hudson-Odoi, Barcelona's Ansu Fati, Manchester City's Phil Foden, AC Milan's Daniel Maldini (the son of former Italian defender Paolo Maldini) and Borussia Dortmund pair Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland.
Besides Luqman, who is due to join Belgian side KV Kortrijk, the other Asian-born players on the list are Japan's Takefusa Kubo (Real Mallorca), Yukinari Sugawara (AZ Alkmaar) and South Korea's Lee Kang-in (Valencia).
"It is a great achievement for Luqman to be nominated for this award," said national Under-19 coach Brad Maloney yesterday.
"To be recognised in the same company of similar aged players from the likes of Real Madrid, Manchester City, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, for example, is an enormous compliment for this humble lad.
"Being someone from Southeast Asia is truly an accomplishment."
Luqman, a National Football Development Programme graduate, burst into the scenes in 2018 when he won the Golden Boot award with five goals at the AFC Under-16 Championship in KL.
The Kota Baru-born also played an instrumental role in last year's AFC Under-19 qualifiers in Cambodia by scoring five goals to help Malaysia top their group.
Luqman will lead the team at the AFC Under-19 Championship in Uzbekistan in October.
In last year's AFF Under-18 Championship, Luqman netted four times in Malaysia's run into the final, before losing 1-0 to Australia.
The list of 80 players will be trimmed to 20 by public vote before a panel of 40 journalists from various countries and publications select the overall winner of the award, presented by Italian sports newspaper Tuttosport.
Past winners include Wayne Rooney, Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas, Sergio Aguero, Paul Pogba, Raheem Sterling, Kylian Mbappe and Joao Felix.