Nigeria duo, Kelechi Iheanacho and Moses Simon, have been nominated for the 2015 FIFA Golden Boy award.
Iheanacho and Simon, who play for Manchester City and KAA Gent respectively, makeup a 40-man shortlist to be crowned as Europe’s best young player.
The prestigious Golden Boy award, first established by the Italian newspaper Tuttosport, was won by Raheem Sterling last year, now with Manchester City but then with Liverpool.
Lionel Messi (2005), Sergio Aguero (2007) and Mario Götze (2011) are among former winners of the award.
Iheanacho and Moses were part of the Nigerian squad to the 2015 FIFA U-20 World in New Zealand although the latter have been capped at full international level with the Super Eagles.
The award which is for players under the age of 21, has three other players of Nigerian descent, they include Premiership trio Jordon Ibe, Dele Alli and Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
Man City’s Iheanacho, 19, has progressed into a first team regular at the Etihad, putting up exciting performances each time he’s selected.
Moses, 20, was instrumental in his club’s Belgian cup success scoring seven times and was named in the 2014/15 team of the season.
Both players are part of the 24-man squad selected by coach Sunday Oliseh for the double-header against Swaziland in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
The winner of the award, which is voted for by journalists from 30 newspapers around the world, will be announced in December.
Full shortlist according to leagues
Premier League: Nathan Ake (Watford; on loan from Chelsea), Dele Alli (Tottenham), Héctor Bellerín (Arsenal), Jordon Ibe (Liverpool), Kelechi Iheanacho (Manchester City), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea), Anthony Martial (Manchester United), Divock Origi (Liverpool), Luke Shaw (Manchester United), Adama Traoré (Aston Villa).
La Liga: Marco Asensio (Espanyol), Zakaria Bakkali (Valencia), Ángel Correa (Atlético Madrid), Danilo Barbosa (Valencia), Munir El Haddadi (Barcelona), Alen Halilovic (Barcelona), Sandro Ramírez (Barcelona).
Bundesliga: Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich), Dahoud Mahmoud (Borussia M’gladbach), Francisco Rodríguez (Wolsfburg), Pierre-Emile Hojberg (Schalke), Adnan Januzaj (Borussia Dortmund; on loan from Manchester United), Max Meyer (Schalke).
Serie A: Ricardo Kishna (Lazio), Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (Lazio), Alessio Romagnoli (Milan)
Ligue 1: Mario Pasalic (Monaco; on loan from Chelsea), Adrien Rabiot (PSG), Adama Traoré (Monaco)
Turkish Super Lig: Jason Denayer (Galatasaray; on loan from Manchester City)
Dutch Eredivise: Anwar El Ghazi (Ajax Amsterdam), Gaston Pereiro (PSV), Tonny Vilhena (Feyenoord)
Portuguese Primeira Liga: Goncalo Guedes (Benfica), Ruben Neves (Porto)
