Designed to recognise good young talent, the award has been won in the past by the likes of Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney, Mario Gotze and Paul Pogba. England's Raheem Sterling is the current holder and this year's award features 40 of the most talented youngsters in the game including the likes of Liverpool's Jordon Ibe, Tottenham’s Dele Alli, Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin and the Manchester United duo of Anthony Martial and Luke Shaw.
Highly talented, Iheanacho was voted the best player at the U17 World Cup in December 2013, taking home the golden ball, while also winning the silver boot for being the second highest goal scorer in the tournament. He has since signed for Manchester City and is gradually working his way into the start-studded teams starting line-up.
Iheanacho has been called up for Nigeria's squad to face Swaziland in next month's World Cup qualifier and is expected to be a major part of coach Sunday Oliseh's future plans. He is seen by many as Nigeria's potential playmaker who can fill the vacuum left after the retirement of Austin JJ Okocha.
Moses Simon, 20, who plays for Belgian Pro League club KAA Gent is also a member of the Super Eagles with five senior caps to his name. He received his first call-up by coach Daniel Amokachi in March 2015 and made his debut on the 25th of the same month in an international friendly against Uganda, scoring his first goal for Nigeria against Niger on September 8 in a 2-0 victory.
Nominees
English Premiership
Nathan Ake (Watford, on loan from Chelsea)
Dele Alli (Tottenham)
Héctor Bellerín (Arsenal)
Jordon Ibe (Liverpool)
Kelechi Iheanacho (Manchester City)
Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea)
Anthony Martial (Manchester United)
Divock Origi (Liverpool)
Luke Shaw (Manchester United)
Adama Traoré (Aston Villa)
Spanish La Liga
Marco Asensio (Espanyol)
Zakaria Bakkali (Valencia)
Ángel Correa (Atlético Madrid)
Danilo Barbosa (Valencia)
Munir El Haddadi (Barcelona)
Alen Halilovic (Barcelona)
Sandro Ramírez (Barcelona)
German Die Bundesliga
Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich)
Dahoud Mahmoud (Borussia M’gladbach)
Francisco Rodríguez (Wolsfburg)
Pierre-Emile Hojberg (Schalke)
Adnan Januzaj (Borussia Dortmund, on loan from Manchester United)
Max Meyer (Schalke)
Italian Serie A
Ricardo Kishna (Lazio)
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (Lazio)
Alessio Romagnoli (Milan)
French Ligue One
Mario Pasalic (Monaco, on loan from Chelsea)
Adrien Rabiot (PSG)
Adama Traoré (Monaco)
Turkish Super Lig
Jason Denayer (Galatasaray, on loan from Manchester City)
Dutch Eredivise: Anwar El Ghazi (Ajax Amsterdam)
Gaston Pereiro (PSV)
Tonny Vilhena (Feyenoord)
Portuguese Primeira Liga
Goncalo Guedes (Benfica)
Ruben Neves (Porto)
Kazakhstan Premier League
Nemanja Maksimovic (Astana)
Croatian Prva Liga
Marko Pajca (Dinamo Zagreb)
Belgian Jupiler Pro League
Moses Simon (KAA Gent)
Youri Tielemans (Anderlecht)
Serbian SuperLiga
Andrija Zivkovic (Partizan Belgrade)
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