The 2026 Kopa Trophy nominees have been confirmed, and Lamine Yamal is once again the leading name on the list as he targets a third straight success.<\/p>\n
Barcelona\u2019s Yamal arrives at the ceremony after a season that underlined his growing status. He produced 24 goals and 18 assists in 45 matches for Barcelona during the 2025-26 campaign, helping Hansi Flick\u2019s side secure La Liga. That form is expected to place him near the top of the Ballon d\u2019Or conversation when the final ceremony is held on Oct. 26.<\/p>\n
He is joined by club and international teammate Pau Cubars\u00ed, who continues to build on a strong rise of his own. The centre-back finished seventh last season and now returns after winning La Liga with Barcelona and the World Cup with Spain. He also collected the FIFA Young Player Award at that tournament.<\/p>\n
The shortlist also includes Yan Diomande, following a season that ended with a $161.6 million (\u20ac140 million) move to the Bernab\u00e9u, while Ayyoub Bouaddi has been named after Manchester City\u2019s $111 million signing. Warren Za\u00efre-Emery remains a familiar figure among the nominees, having tied for eighth in 2024.<\/p>\n
There are several first-time challengers too. Lennart Karl of Bayern Munich and Ibrahim Maza of Bayer Leverkusen represent the Bundesliga, while Bournemouth\u2019s Junior Kroupi and Aston Villa\u2019s Johan Manzambi bring Premier League representation to the list. Juventus\u2019 Kerim Alajbegovi\u0107 completes the men\u2019s shortlist.<\/p>\n
The women\u2019s Kopa Trophy, introduced in 2025, also features a strong field. Barcelona and Spain\u2019s Vicky L\u00f3pez, the inaugural winner, is back in contention. She is joined by teammate Clara Serrajordi, Chelsea\u2019s Veerle Buurman, Real Madrid\u2019s Felicia Schr\u00f6der and OL Lyonnes\u2019 Lily Yohannes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yamal leads the 2026 Kopa Trophy shortlist after another huge Barcelona season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[711,1017,1062,739,190,1362,238,1031,987],"tags":[1047,59,182],"class_list":["post-19296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aston-villa","category-barcelona","category-bayern-munich","category-bournemouth","category-chelsea","category-juventus","category-manchester-city","category-paris-saint-germain","category-real-madrid","tag-champions-league","tag-featured","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}