Featured Image Credit: DeboaBet - Getty
Topics: Premier League, Manchester United
Chris Byfield
The 2008 Golden Ball winner looks completely different 16 years since his victory.
Last month, Barcelona and Spain forward Lamine Yamal lifted the prestigious Golden Boy award, which is given to the best European men's player under the age of 21.
Yamal, who became Barcelona's youngest ever player in April last year after featuring against Real Betis, aged 15 years, 9 months and 16 days, has established himself as one of the best young talents in world football.
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It was a victory that got SPORTbible thinking about other recipients of the Golden Boy awards, and where they may have ended up.
One of those winners was Anderson, the former Manchester United midfielder who received the Golden Boy award in 2008. And he looks particularly different judging by his social media.
Gone are the player's famous dreadlocks, with the Brazilian now sporting a clean-shaven haircut.
Since leaving United back in 2015, Anderson spent the latter stages of his career in Brazil, playing for Internacional and Coritiba before ultimately heading to Turkey for the final two seasons of his career at Adana Demirspor.
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However, Anderson’s time was plagued by injuries, which led to the Brazilian’s decision to retire at the age of 31 in 2019.
Anderson was tipped for great things in the early stages of his career. In fact, he could have been the best player in the world if it wasn't for his love of McDonald's, according to one of his former teammates.
In his joint autobiography with twin brother Fabio, former Manchester United full-back Rafael gave an insight into Anderson's talent.
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"We could be on the team coach and pass the services on the motorway and Anderson would jump up impulsively and yell 'McDonald's, McDonald's'," he wrote. "The guy was crazy, but I love him."
The Brazilian full-back added: "Give him a football and he would just play with freedom and sometimes, if he got a good run of games, he could play as well as any player in the league.
"Not only that, but when he was playing well, we were playing brilliant football. He picked up a lot of big injuries and then his problems with eating the way he did started to affect him.
“It was no coincidence that his best form came when he had a lot of games because that was when he couldn't eat so much.
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"I will say something about Anderson – if he had been a professional football player, he could have been the best in the world."