Barcelona’s 18-year-old midfielder Gavi was recently crowned as the world’s best Under-21 footballer, called the Kopa trophy, at the Ballon d’Or awards, hosted in Paris earlier this week.
The Spaniard beat off competition from the likes of Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham, Bayern Munich‘s Jamal Musiala and Eduardo Camavinga to scoop the prize.
Gavi’s club teammate Pedri won the award last year, while previous winners include the likes of PSG superstar Kylian Mbappe and Matthijs de Ligt.
Gavi burst onto the scene in 2021 and quickly became a regular for Barcelona and Spain despite his lack of top-level experience. The combative midfielder has already made 60 appearances for the Catalan giants, having only turned 18 in August.
Barca moved to secure his long-term future by handing him a contract in September that contains a €1 billion release clause.
While there was general fanfare about the newest Kopa award winner, not everyone was having it.
19-year-old Jamal Musiala finished third in the ranking for the Kopa Trophy, behind Real Madrid’s Eduardo Camavinga and winner Gavi.
The German scored eight times and contributed eight assists for Bayern on their way to the Bundesliga title last season and the Bavarian giants aren’t too happy at seeing him miss out.
Coach Julian Nagelsmann has also questioned the decision stating, “In my opinion, both Jamal Musiala and Jude Bellingham played a better season than the winner….But Gavi is an outstanding player and I’m happy for him too.”
This is not the first time Bayern have been left feeling aggrieved at the Ballon d’Or awards. Former striker Robert Lewandowski looked set to win the 2020 edition after a phenomenal season but then saw the awards cancelled because of the pandemic.
It is fair to say Musiala being overlooked didn’t go down all that well with his Bayern teammates either and Alphonso Davies is a representation of how they all feel.
The Canadian took to Twitter to voice his displeasure about the result and to make a bold prediction about Musiala’s prospects.
“They may have denied you of your Kopa Trophy, but they won’t deny you of your future Ballon d’Or”, Davies wrote on Twitter.
The tweet was also accompanied by four pictures of the duo, who obviously enjoy a great relationship both on and off the field of play.
You have got to love the supportive nature and confidence of Davies’ tweet.
He knows that Musiala has the minerals to go right to the very top of the game and doesn’t want this setback to negatively impact the young star.
After all, Davies is only 21 himself and so knows just a little more about the trials and tribulations of growing up under the keen spotlight of professional football.
That being said, we doubt that Musiala missing out on the Kopa Award will have too much effect.
He has started this season on fire, contributing to a total of 10 goals across his opening nine Bundesliga appearances and has proved to be the club’s most in-form star whilst doing so.
Musiala will have a point to prove when the Bavarian giants take on Augsburg in the German Cup on Wednesday and then head to Hoffenheim on Saturday in the Bundesliga.
