Former Manchester United target beats Marcus Rashford to European Golden Boy award

Manchester United starlet Marcus Rashford is officially Europe's second best young player.

Rashford, who had a breakthrough season with Manchester United after bagging a brace in the Europa League in February. His impressive performances in such a short period of time in the Premier League was enough to earn him a place in the England squad for Euro 2016. But United will have to make do with having only the second most impressive player under the age of 21 this season following Anthony Martial's triumph last year, as Bayern Munich's Renato Sanches has been awarded the European Golden Boy award by Italian newspaper Tuttosport. The 19-year-old winger has had a phenomenal 2016 so far. He was part of Portugal's first ever European Championship-winning team and won a Portuguese league title with Benfica before making a big-money move to the Bundesliga. He's added another achievement to his resume as he becomes the first ever Portuguese footballer to win the European Golden Boy accolade. Cristiano Ronaldo finished as runner-up behind Wayne Rooney in 2004. Interestingly, Renato Sanches could have been on United's books this season. The youngster had been long been linked with a move to Old Trafford, but the deal never happened because of the delay in getting the Jose Mourinho deal finalised.

"I arrived late," Mourinho told Sport TV. "I signed in May, we started talking a week before, but completely out of the process. If I had arrived earlier, I’d fight for him." “Manchester United watched Renato many times and maybe I did it even more. In so much time at home, I watched many Benfica and Portuguese league games, I got to know the boy better with time."

Ah well, it's not like they need him given how well they- *checks yesterday's score*- ah. You can catch up on the latest episode of JOE's Football Friday Live right here...