Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez and Tottenham Hotspur’s Dele Alli have won the top two awards in a botched 43rd Annual Professional Footballers’ Association Awards ceremony in London.
The 43rd Annual Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Awards Ceremony, will go down as one to forget for the organisers.
The PFA were forced to reveal the Premier League Team of the Year prematurely on Thursday, after a ‘member of the public’ got their dirty hands on a copy of the official awards ceremony brochure and leaked the details to the general public.
Things got even more ridiculous, after Spurs rather stupidly posted an extract of their Monday night match day program congratulating Dele Alli for winning the PFA Young Player of the Year award several hours before the announcement was made.
It read: “Dele Alli’s impressive season hit new heights yesterday evening when he was voted PFA Young Player of the Year at the 43rd PFA Awards held at Grosvenor House in London.”
Now that rather pissed on the chips of last year’s winner Harry Kane, Everton’s rampaging forward Romelu Lukaku, Stoke stopper Jack Butland, Liverpool star Philippe Coutinho, and Everton midfielder Ross Barkley, who all made the shortlist for the award.
Alli has so far scored 10 goals, and created 9, in his first season with the club after spending the previous four years on loan at Milton Keynes Dons. He also broke through into the full England set up securing six caps, and one goal, and looks a sure starter for the European Championships in the summer.
Riyad Mahrez Wins PFA Player’s Player of the Year
Riyad Mahrez won the top award, and that too was leaked rather early on Twitter.
The bookies had Riyad Mahrez as the odds-on favourite to pick up the prize, and they weren’t wrong. The Algerian forward becomes the first African player to win the award after pipping his fellow teammates Jamie Vardy, and N’Golo Kante, Spurs Harry Kane, West Ham’s Dimitri Payet, and Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil to the punch.
Vardy was second, and Kane was third.
It’s a spectacular rise through the ranks for Mahrez who was playing his football for the French Ligue 2 side Le Havre before Leicester snapped him up for less than half a milly in January 2014. He has since scored 24 times in 83 appearances. He is currently the joint top in the goal making charts with his teammate Vardy having had a hand in 28 goals this season (17 goals, 11 assists) including the opener in Leicester’s 4-0 hammering of Swansea earlier in the day. The last player to win the award that cost less than a million bucks was Aston Villa’s Paul McGrath back in 1993.
Mahrez joins the likes of Luis Suarez, Gareth Bale, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Alan Shearer, and Gary Lineker as previous winners of this award.
Premier League PFA Team of the Year
The Premier League PFA Team of the Year was dominated by Leicester and Spurs with four players apiece making the grade. Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin made it into the side, as did West Ham’s Dimitri Payet, and Man Utd’s David De Gea.
Not a single player from last year’s champions Chelsea made the cut. Neither did Champions League semi-finalists Man City, or Europa League semi-finalists, Liverpool. Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil made the shortlist for the primary award but was pushed out of the Team of the Year by Dele Alli.
It’s the first time in 41 years that not a single outfield player from either Man Utd or Liverpool has made the cut into the Team of the Year.
1. David De Gea (Man Utd)
2. Danny Rose (Spurs)
3. Hector Bellerin (Arsenal)
4. Toby Alderweireld (Spurs)
5. Wes Morgan (Leicester)
6. N.Golo Kante (Leicester)
7. Dele Alli (Spurs)
8. Riyad Mahrez (Leicester)
9. Jamie Vardy (Leicester)
10. Harry Kane (Spurs)
11. Dimitri Payet (West Ham)
The other awards dished out included a special award to Jamie Vardy for scoring in 11 consecutive Premier League matches earlier in the season; Ryan Giggs picked up the PFA Merit Award; Izzy Christiansen won the Women’s PFA Player of the year award, and Beth Mead won the Women’s Young Player of the Year award.
