The Daily Bee (October 16, 2020): Erling Haaland, Jadon Sancho Named Finalists for Golden Boy Trophy

Good morning, Fear the Wall.

Erling Haaland and Jadon Sancho Named Golden Boy Finalists

Borussia Dortmund’s young stars are some of the most promising in all of world football, and if the constant transfer rumors weren’t enough to clue you in, this should really make it clear. Every year, the Italian outlet Tuttosport gives the award for the best player in the world below the age of 21. The list of potential winners started at 100 and has since been whittled down to 20, with BVB stars Erling Haaland and Jadon Sancho leading the list.

The Bundesliga only had three players (Haaland, Sancho, and Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies) make the list, but in my opinion, all three could make credible claims towards winning the trophy. Sancho was a candidate for Bundesliga MVP last season, Haaland has been a goalscoring machine for club and country, and Davies was integral to Bayern winning the Champions League. To be honest, I’m not really sure what other player among those 20 could reasonably claim to be better, at this point, than any of the Bundesliga’s three biggest talents.

The winner will be revealed on December 14th.

Two Hoffenheim Players Test Positive for COVID-19

According to sky.de, two unnamed players for TSG Hoffenheim contracted Coronavirus while on international duty, while a third player is quarantining due to a positive test in his immediate family. The good news is that none of these players had any contact with anyone else on the squad. The remaining players have tested negative multiple times, so it looks like the match is still set to take place on Saturday.

More troubling, however, is the serious spike in cases among players that we’ve seen during the international break. Liverpool’s Naby Keita and Weston McKennie and Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus have all tested positive in the last few days, amid a wider spike of cases among the general public in many European countries. It really begs the question of whether or not it was wise to make players leave their bubbles and scatter across the world for something as unimportant as the international break.

Let’s be honest for a second: does anyone care about international football right now? The World Cup and the Euros have already been pushed back indefinitely and club football is at risk of being delayed at any moment if cases get too high. It was nice to watch the Nations League because there was nothing else on, but other than that does anyone really care? Leave your thoughts below.

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In addition to ranting about how awful the international break is, I’ll ask: If you had to award the Golden Boy to either Sancho or Haaland, who would you pick?