Barcelona's Pedri Wins Kopa Trophy for Best U-21 Player; USMNT's Reyna Finishes Ninth

Pedri won the Copa del Rey with Barcelona, played every game at the Euros and won an Olympic silver medal with Spain.

At just 19 years old, Pedri is starting to build quite the trophy case. On Monday, the Barcelona midfielder added the prestigious Kopa Trophy given to the best U-21 player in the world to his impressive year.

Last week for the Spaniard, it was Tuttosport's Golden Boy; this summer it was an Olympic silver medal with Spain. And at the end of last season, he helped Barcelona to the Copa del Rey title.

Pedri also became a staple in the Spanish national team at this summer's European championship and was named the UEFA Young Player of the Tournament. La Furia Roja dropped out of the semifinals to eventual champion Italy, but Pedri started every game at the Euros for Spain. 

In fact, he missed only a single minute of action when he was subbed off just before the penalty-kick shootout against Switzerland in the quarterfinals. 

The Las Palmas academy product logged more than 1,000 international minutes during the summer after missing only one league match with Barcelona—the season finale—in his first season with the club. Pedri also made his Champions League debut in 2020.

PSG star Kylian Mbappé and Juventus defender Matthijs de Ligt are the two other names to win the Kopa Trophy after last year's edition was canceled. Borussia Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham came in a distant second this year behind Pedri, while U.S. men's national team winger Gio Reyna finished ninth in the voting. 

Kopa Trophy:
1 Pedri 89 pts.
2 Jude Bellingham 39
3 Jamal Musiala 38
4 Nuno Mendes 23
5 Mason Greenwood 15
6 Bukayo Saka, Florian Wirtz 8 pts.
8 Ryan Gravenberch 3 pts.
9 Jérémy Doku, Giovanni Reyna 1 pt.
Voters: former #BallondOr winners.
(Christian Pulisic was 2nd in 2018.)

— Paul Kennedy (@pkedit) November 29, 2021

On Monday, Pedri also finished 24th in Ballon d'Or voting. If the Kopa Trophy is a precursor, it may not be long before the phenom is among the contenders for the sport's biggest individual prize as well.