Borussia Dortmund youngsters have won the gold medals in both age categories of the prestigious Fritz Walter Medals- awarded to German football’s most promising and talented young players.
Youssoufa Moukoko took the top award in the U-19 category, while fellow Schwarzgelben teenager Paris Brunner won the gold medal in the U-17 category. The U-19 award saw Mainz’s Brajan Gruda take the silver prize with Hoffenheim Umut Tohumcu winning bronze. In the U-17 award, former Freiburg and now Barcelona midfielder Noah Darvich came second with Schalke’s Assan Ouedraogo taking third spot.
Moukoko has long been expected to make the leap from junior football having scored masses of goals in the lower age groups and last season he scored seven times in Dortmund’s push for the Bundesliga title. He was a surprise inclusion in the German World Cup squad. The striker had previously won the U-17 award in 2021.
BVB look well set for strikers in the coming years with 17-year-old Paris Brunner winning the second Fritz Walter gold medal this year. He was the standout performer for Germany at the UEFA U17 European Championships. Brunner finished as the tournament’s joint-top scorer with four goals, from just 13 attempts on target. His impressive tally included Germany’s equaliser in the 1-1 quarter-final draw with Switzerland.
Joti Chatzialexiou , sports director of the national teams, says: “All six boys impressed us, they convinced their coaches and, most importantly, they made their teammates better. The same applies to all of them: They made a decisive contribution to the success of their teams. Our hope is that that all players establish themselves in professional football, just as many of their predecessors managed to do.
“They have impressively demonstrated with their performances that they have the potential to do so. Youssoufa, for example, is well on the way to establishing himself permanently in a top German team. Paris showed in the Youth League and at the U17 European Championship that he can make the difference in big games.”
Previous winners of the highly prestigious youth award include Toni Kroos, Mario Götze, Kai Havertz, Julian Brandt and Florian Wirtz to name just a few.
