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Young stars shining at UEFA EURO 2016

Europe's top youngsters are vying for the Young Player of the Tournament at UEFA EURO 2016 – and several have made eye-catching contributions in France.

Young stars shining at UEFA EURO 2016
Young stars shining at UEFA EURO 2016 ©UEFA.com

Europe's best youngsters have been competing for the Young Player of the Tournament at UEFA EURO 2016 – and a number of emerging talents have turned in some eye-catching performances in France.

Presented by SOCAR, the new award is open to all players born on or after 1 January 1994 and will be chosen by the UEFA technical observers. Led by UEFA chief technical officer Ioan Lupescu and including Sir Alex Ferguson and Alain Giresse, the observers are attending all 51 EURO matches.

Among the talented tyros who are in contention for the prize, Joshua Kimmich has won a regular role as Germany's right-back; Alessandro Schöpf (Austria), Eric Dier (England), Ondrej Duda (Slovakia) and Arkadiusz Milik (Poland) have all scored, while 22-year-old Napoli defender Elseid Hysaj played all 270 minutes of Albania's campaign and Renato Sanches has made three appearances for Portugal.

The trophy's design aims to capture a moment in time, showing a rising star who stands above his peers and has a major impact on his team's performance.

The award is the culmination of SOCAR's #MakeYourDebut campaign, illuminating stories of those who, like major energy company and new competition sponsors SOCAR, are making their tournament debuts at UEFA EURO 2016. This includes five new countries and many young players appearing in the UEFA European Championship for the first time.