Cubarsí wins 2026 Golden Boy with 475 of 500 points as Barça reach five winners

Barcelona centre-back Pau Cubarsí, 19, has won Tuttosport’s 2026 Golden Boy award for Europe’s best under-21 player by a wide margin. The landslide puts a defender on top of a prize rarely won by one, and pushes Barcelona further clear as the club with the most winners.

This year’s vote was one-sided. No other candidate came close to the Barcelona defender.

The margin shows how settled the vote was. It also marks a rare win for a player in his position. Corriere dello Sport described him as only the second defender ever to win it. He succeeds PSG’s Désiré Doué, the 2025 winner.

Barcelona move two clear of Dortmund and United

Cubarsí now joins a club list that already featured Messi, Pedri, Gavi and Lamine Yamal. Four of the five have come in the last six years. Pedri won in 2021, Gavi in 2022 and Lamine Yamal in 2024.

No player can win the award twice. Each Barcelona success therefore means a different young player reaching the top of the vote. The recent run points to a steady flow of talent into the first team.

The award caps a strong year for the defender. He was a big part of Barcelona’s LaLiga and Super Cup wins. He was also named young player of the tournament as Spain won the World Cup. He started all eight of Spain’s games there. FIFA’s Young Player Award made him the first defender to receive it. Spain beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time in the final. They kept seven clean sheets and conceded only once, in a 2-1 quarter-final win over Belgium. The Golden Boy arrives just weeks after he narrowly missed out on the Kopa Trophy.

Three Barcelona winners on one Golden Boy day

Cubarsí was not the only Barcelona name on the list. Three of Monday’s winners came from the club. Joan Laporta took the Best President award. Barça Femení B’s Giulia Galli won the Best Italian Golden Girl prize. Outside the club, the Best Agent prize went to Jorge Mendes.

Laporta’s prize puts the club’s president alongside its young defender in the same announcement. Galli’s award extends the club’s haul to its women’s set-up. Together, the three prizes give Barcelona recognition across the boardroom, the men’s first team and the women’s game.

The timing suits both club and country. Barcelona sit top of LaLiga. Spain have a decider against England coming up. For Cubarsí, the award adds individual recognition to a season already built on trophies.

The prizes will be handed out at a ceremony in Turin on 14 December. All three of Barcelona’s awards become official at that ceremony.