Kevin De Bruyne has become the first Manchester City man to win the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Player of the Year.
The Belgium playmaker’s award breaks a two-year run of Liverpool winners, with Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah having claimed the prize over the previous two seasons.
City trailed the Reds by an eventual 18 points in the 2019/20 Premier League term but De Bruyne, who registered 13 goals and a record-equalling 20 assists, was voted the campaign’s top performer by his peers and he was quick to thank his manager for handing him full creative licence.
“Most of the time he just lets me be me,” the 29-year-old said of Pep Guardiola.
“We speak often about the team but in a lot of senses he knows when he gives the orders of what the team has to do that I will listen. But then on the other side he gives me a lot of freedom; I don’t know why, that’s just the way it goes between us.
“He knows in one way I will always put the team first and then obviously if I can help myself I’m going to do that.
“But he knows that I want the team to win, and if the team wins I will gain from it. So I think in that sense he feels fine and he trusts me completely.
PFA Player of the Year 2020/21 odds
- Kevin De Bruyne - 5/1
- Raheem Sterling - 12/1
- Harry Kane - 16/1
- Sadio Mane, Virgil van Dijk, Christian Pulisic, Trent Alexander-Arnold - 20/1
“This is a big honour, to be voted by your colleagues, competitors from other teams who you always play against on the field. That they vote for you for best player; it’s amazing.
“It’s maybe strange that I’m the first one at City, seeing all the good players who played there before and who are still playing. But it’s nice to represent the club.”
Last term’s winner Van Dijk was shortlisted again for his exploits in Liverpool’s title-winning 2019/20 campaign, with his Reds team-mates Sadio Mane, Jordan Henderson and Trent Alexander-Arnold also in the running.
De Bruyne pipped all of those to the accolade, however, and also fought off the challenge of his City colleague Raheem Sterling.
Alexander-Arnold wins Young Player of the Year
Liverpool’s accomplished full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold scooped the men’s Young Player of the Year award, seeing off Manchester United duo Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood, Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount, and Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka.
Alexander-Arnold played a part in 12 clean sheets in Liverpool’s league triumph, and also laid on 13 assists and four goals, continuing to develop his already deadly all-court game.
The 21-year-old warned Liverpool’s rivals that German boss Klopp’s side were nowhere near satisfied with their successes to date.
“That first taste of success and being able to lift trophies, you never get over that, and the disappointments that come along the way too feed that hunger as well,” said Alexander-Arnold.
“So it’s probably a perfect blend of wanting to feel the success and not wanting to feel that disappointment that we’ve felt in the past.
“And I think as a team and individually the mentality is to keep going and to keep striving forward, because we’re not done yet.”
Rashford receives PFA Merit Award
Marcus Rashford has vowed to find “long-term answers” to child food poverty in the UK, after receiving the Professional Footballers’ Association Merit Award for combating the problem.
Manchester United striker Rashford forced the UK government into a U-turn over its free school meals policy during lockdown, ensuring children in need would receive meals across the summer.
The England forward has since formed a child food poverty task force, linking up with some of the UK’s biggest supermarkets and food brands.
And on receiving the PFA’s special award, handed out for services to football, the 22-year-old insisted he is only just getting started on his off-field quest.
“What we’ve done so far, it’s only a short-term answer,” said Rashford.
“Me and my team behind me are just trying to find plans on how we can help these children for the rest of their childhood really; to find long-term answers to the problem.
“At the moment we don’t have the answers but we’ll do our best to try to find them, and to progress the situation that they are in at the moment the best we can.
“Obviously I was injured during lockdown, and at the beginning I was working towards getting back with the team, but then there were conversations saying there might not be games until September, and when I was sat at home I just needed something to work towards and a goal to achieve.
“And that was just something I spoke about with my brothers over the phone and rest of my family, and we just tried to find the best way to help people.
“It’s been a long journey, but I think the first phase was probably the hardest bit, which was learning and self-teaching who were the right people to get in contact with to help these children especially.
“We had the ideas but we didn’t know where to pitch them, or who to pitch them to, so that was probably the most difficult phase of everything really. That was right at the beginning of lockdown.
“This is obviously a huge honour, and for me I just hope it encourages and promotes other players to do things to help as much as they can. I’m very happy, and I’ll definitely continue to do my best to help people.”
