Rayan Cherki was named one of eight nominees for the Premier League's best young player award on Wednesday, the league confirmed, putting the 22-year-old’s first season at Manchester City in the spotlight.
Cherki produced 12 assists and scored 4 goals in 31 matches for Manchester City in the 2024–2025 season, figures that sit alongside the season-long breakthrough of fellow nominee Eli Junior Kroupi, who scored 12 goals in his first Premier League campaign with Bournemouth.
The numbers sharpen the choice facing voters: Cherki, 22, supplied a dozen assists for a team stacked with attacking talent; Kroupi, 19, matched that dozen with goals, making him the first teenager to reach 12 Premier League goals since Robbie Fowler did so for Liverpool in 1993–1994.
The short list totals eight players aged 23 and under, the age limit for the award, and includes Nico O'Reilly, Kobbie Mainoo, Michael Kayode, Matheus Fernandes, Lewis Hall and Alex Scott alongside Cherki and Kroupi.
Context matters: both Cherki and Kroupi arrived in the Premier League in the summer of 2024, and the award explicitly recognizes players aged 23 and under in England. The other nominees represent a cross-section of clubs across the league, with players from Manchester City, Manchester United, Brentford, West Ham, Newcastle and Bournemouth all on the list.
That cross-club spread creates the season’s central tension. Cherki’s contribution to Manchester City reads as creative influence — 12 assists in 31 matches — while Kroupi’s 12 goals are a raw scoring total with historical weight because of his age. Voters must choose whether the season’s standout young performer is the creator who set up teammates or the teenager who finished chances in his debut Premier League year.
Round Time News has previously tracked Cherki’s adaptation to City and the moments that defined his early months at the club, and the newsroom has also covered other aspects of his season that drew attention to his development as a young player (see match coverage) and in features on his profile at the club (see feature).
The winner will be announced next week, a deadline that turns numbers into a final judgment about which young player mattered most this season. For Cherki, the case is clear: sustained creative output in 31 appearances. For Kroupi, the claim is equally straightforward — a 19-year-old forward with 12 goals in his first Bournemouth season, the first teen to hit that mark since Fowler.
Which argument carries the day will determine whether the award rewards playmaking influence at a title-chasing club or a breakout scoring tally from a teenager; the decision next week will settle that debate and define the narrative of the 2024–2025 season’s most impressive young talent.
