Kazakhstan football player nominated to Golden Boy-2011

Alexander Merkel. Photo courtesy of soccer.ru

Kazakhstan football player Alexander Merkel from Italian Club Genoa was nominated for European Golden Boy-2011, Tengrinews.kz reports, citing Sports.kz. According to the poll, Alexander yielded the title to halfback Mario Gotze who plays for The Borussia Dortmund. Barselona's halfback Thiago Alcantara and Eden Azar, leader of French Lille were also on the list of candidates. The Golden Boy title is awarded to the best European football player under the are of 21 annually. Representatives of 30 European sport magazines took part in the poll.