Raheem Sterling was awarded the prestigious European Golden Boy award on Saturday, beating a number of other impressive youngsters to the accolade after a tremendous 2014 with Liverpool.
The award is presented to the best player under the age of 21 in a top-flight league in Europe and is voted on by journalists from across the continent. This year's shortlist included over 40 names, but Sterling defeated the likes of Manchester United's Adnan Januzaj, former Everton loanee Gerard Deulofeu and even teammates Divock Origi and Lazar Markovic, to win the award.
The 20-year-old played a huge part in the successes of the 2013-14 season, combining with Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez as the Reds came close to the title. He ended the campaign with an impressive total of nine goals and five assists in 33 Premier League appearances, whilst he has five goals and five assists from 23 appearances in all competitions so far this season.
Despite still being a teenager until 12 days ago, Sterling has enjoyed a wonderful year - at the forefront of a Premier League title chase and also made an impression at the World Cup for England in the summer.
Since it's inception in 2003, when Italian newspaper Tuttosport created the award - the likes of Wayne Rooney (2004), Lionel Messi (2005) and Sergio Aguero (2007) have won the coveted award. Sterling becomes the first ever Liverpool player to be named the Golden Boy and the second Englishman behind Rooney to win, but team-mate Mario Balotelli also won the award back in 2008.
He follows on from Paul Pogba, who won after a fantastic season for Juventus last year. The full shortlist was as follows:
Premier League (10 players): Kurt Zouma (Chelsea), Calum Chambers (Arsenal), Adnan Januzaj, Luke Shaw (Manchester United), John Stones (Everton), Raheem Sterling, Lazar Markovic, Divock Origi (Liverpool), Nabil Bentaleb, Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur).
La Liga (five players): Saul Niguez (Atletico Madrid), Gerard Deulofeu (Sevilla), Aymeric Laporte (Athletic Bilbao), Sandro Ramirez, Munir El Haddai (Barcelona).
Serie A (five players): Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo), Mateo Kovacic (Inter), Bernardeschi Franco (Fiorentina), Kingsley Coman (Juventus), Keita Baldé Diao (Lazio).
Bundesliga (six players): Hakan Calhanoglu (Bayer Leverkusen), Matthias Ginter (Borussia Dortmund), Julian Green (Hamburg), Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Gianluca Gaudino (Bayern Munich), Maximilian Meyer (Schalke).
Ligue 1 (four players): Marquinhos, Adrien Rabiot (Paris Saint-Germain), Benjamin Mendy (Marseille), Lucas Ocampos (Monaco).
Eredivisie (three players): Tonny Vilhena (Feyenoord), Jetro Willems (PSV), Arkadiusz Milik (Ajax).
Other nominees (seven players): Oliver Torres (Porto), Bruma (Galatasaray), Gonzalez (Basel), Nikola Ninkovic (Partizan Belgrade), Luka Zahovic (Maribor), Dennis Praet, Alexander Mitrovic (Anderlecht).
After receiving the award, Sterling told Liverpool's official club website: "It’s a great achievement to win such an award. It’s a really happy feeling for me and my family," he said. "Something I’ve always wanted to do is to work hard playing football and try to be recognised. I’m really grateful that people have shown me this recognition."
With a huge fixture against Arsenal approaching, the talented youngster continued: "It’s down to hard work. I’m really happy that people are recognising that I’m trying to work hard and do my best for this football club. I’m really grateful for this award."