Kenan Yildiz named Serie A Rising Star of the Season

Turin, Italy - March 21: Kenan Yildiz of Juventus Fc celebrates after scoring his team's first goal during the Serie A match between Juventus FC and Us Sassuolo at Allianz Stadium on March 21, 2026 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by sportinfoto/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images) | DeFodi Images via Getty Images It has been another incredibly disappointing season on the whole for Juventus, but Kenan Yildiz has been an undeniable bright spot amongst all of the other doom and gloom that has surrounded the club. He was recognized as such ahead of the final weekend of the 2025-26 season.

Yildiz was named Serie A’s Rising Star of the Season on Friday, a deserved award for a player who has shown to be one of Europe’s brightest Under-21 talents well before he actually turned 21. Even though Yildiz’s 21st birthday arrived a couple of weeks ago, Yildiz has racked up the kind of numbers that few players his age have done at a storied club like Juventus. He has been one of Serie A’s leading goal scorers for much of the season, and has been the hub of some of good that an otherwise frustrating Juve attack has done over the past nine months.

Previous winners of the award include Como’s Nico Paz last season as well as Nicolo Fagioli, Dusan Vlahovic and Dejan Kulusevski. View this post on Instagram Yildiz, in his second season wearing the No. 10 at Juventus, leads to team in both goals (10) and assists (6) during the Serie A campaign.

Those are both career highs — and could very well be higher if not for the young Turkiye star dealing with knee inflammation for much of the last two months. Yildiz has also played a career-high 2,825 minutes in Serie A this year — which, again, would have been even higher if not for his recent knee issue. With all that said, Yildiz is clearly the best young player in the league alongside Nico Paz.