The Brazilian has scored 11 goals from just 15 Premier League starts, giving him the best minutes-to-goals ratio in Premier League history, and he bagged another after 25 minutes of his Champions League debut in the recent 4-0 win over Feyenoord.
The award relates to performances across a calendar year, with 30 journalists from various European publications set to decide the winner.
Sergio Aguero won the award in 2007 when he was at Atletico Madrid, Mario Balotelli followed suit in 2010, the year he joined City, and Raheem Sterling took the honours in 2014 when he was at Liverpool.
The current holder is Swansea’s Renato Sanches, who topped the judges’ list after his fine displays for Benfica, Portugal and Bayern Munich in 2016.
The result of this year’s award will be announced on October 23.
The full list of nominees is:
Aarón Martin Espanyol; Jean-Kévin Augustin RB Leipzig; Rodrigo BentacurJuventus; Steven Bergwijn PSV Eindhoven; Dominic Calvert-Lewin Everton; Federico Chiesa Fiorentina; Ousmane Dembélé Barcelona; Amadou DiawaraNapoli; Kasper Dolberg Ajax; Gianluigi Donnarumma Milan; Gabriel JesusManchester City; Joe Gomez Liverpool; Benjamin Henrichs Bayer Leverkusen; Borja Mayoral Real Madrid; Kylian Mbappé Paris Saint-Germain; Emre Mor Celta Vigo; Reece Oxford Borussia Mönchengladbach; Christian Pulisic Borussia Dortmund; Marcus Rashford Manchester United; Allan Saint-Maximim Nice; Dominic Solanke Liverpool; Theo Hernández Real Madrid; Youri TielemansMonaco; Enes Unal Villarreal; Kyle Walker-Peters Tottenham.
