If Harry Kane is to claim the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Premier League Player of the Year, he’ll have to beat out Bruno Fernandes and a quartet of players from the PL champs.
Ruben Dias, Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, and Phil Foden have all been nominated for the honor, as Foden is also up for Young Player of the Year with Declan Rice, Mason Mount, Bukayo Saka, Mason Greenwood, and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Players vote for the winner, who will be announced Sunday. Will Man City’s four nominees take votes off each other and open the door for the Tottenham and Manchester United nominees?
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Man City defender Ruben Dias was named the Football Writers Association’s Player of the Year, but that honor has been given to a different player from the PFA award the previous two seasons. Jordan Henderson and Raheem Sterling claimed the writers’ honor in years that the PL’s top honor went to Kevin De Bruyne and Virgil van Dijk, respectively.
Those awards mirrored the Premier League’s Player of the Year honoree, as De Bruyne won it last season and Van Dijk the previous season. De Bruyne Is up for the PL award along with Dias, Fernandes, Kane, Mount, Mohamed Salah, Jack Grealish, and Tomas Soucek.
Dias, De Bruyne, Kane, and Fernandes are the only players nominated for all three awards, and it would be surprising if the winners come from outside that group. Kane’s massive respect amongst players and De Bruyne’s status as a previous winner could shake Dias’ chance at sweeping the honors despite the Portuguese back’s revolutionizing City’s defense.
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Four of six PFA Premier League Player of the Year finalists from Man City originally appeared on NBCSports.com