The 43rd PFA Awards was held at the Grosvenor House in London on Sunday 24th April 2016. The PFA Awards celebrates the best of English football in an evening attended by hundreds of current professional stars of the game, to recognize the outstanding performers in every division.
Previous winners of the prestigious PFA Players’ Player of the Year award have included Luis Suarez, Alan Shearer, Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ryan Giggs. The current holders are Eden Hazard and Ji So-Yun.
PFA Chief Executive, Gordon Taylor OBE: “The PFA Awards is always a special occasion and one of the biggest nights in football’s social calendar.
“For the winners who are honored at the awards, there can be no greater personal accolade than that of being recognized by your peers; an honor to be cherished.”
See the winners below:
Izzy Christiansen has been named the PFA Women’s Players' Player of the Year 2016.
Having scored the only goal as Manchester City beat Arsenal to win the FA Women’s Super League Continental Cup in October 2014 at the end of her inaugural campaign at the City Football Academy, Izzy Christiansen capped another memorable year last season by scoring on her debut for England against Estonia in September.
The attacking midfielder, now 24, followed that up with the only goal of the game as Mark Sampson’s side beat Australia in the Dewellbon Cup in China a month later.
The Macclesfield-born player actually started her career with Manchester United before joining Everton, where she appeared in the Women’s Champions League.
She also played for Birmingham City in Europe’s premier competition after leaving Everton in 2010 and was an integral member of the Midlanders’ side who won the Women’s FA Cup in 2012.
Tottenham’s Dele Alli has been named the PFA Men’s Young Player of the Year 2016.
It is a measure of the remarkable progress made by Dele Alli that it is only a year ago that he was named in the League One Team of the Year.
In just 12 months the Tottenham sensation has become a fixture at White Hart Lane, been named the most valuable teenager in Europe, scored on his full debut for England, scored one of the goals of the season and could cap it all with a Premier League title.
Alli, who is just 20, has turned the debate about producing homegrown talent on its head. Born in Milton Keynes, he joined the youth system at MK Dons aged 11 and broke into the first team five years later, going on to help the club in its promotion season before signing for Spurs.
Fast forward to now and Alli’s creativity and energy are a key part of Tottenham’s title push, one of the reasons Harry Kane has topped the goal charts and is being talked about as England’s creative hub in France this summer.
Leicester City's Riyad Mahrez has been named the PFA Men’s Players’ Player of the Year 2016.
Riyad Mahrez’s first coach called him “a gem in the rough” for his undoubted talent. Nowadays, the Algerian is a 100-carat diamond in the richest league in the world.
For those who watched Leicester soar out of the Championship and then put together that remarkable run to stay in the Premier League, Mahrez’s performances have not been such a surprise.
However, the way in which the 25-year old wing wizard has been a key element in Leicester’s magical march to the top of the Premier League has made Mahrez one of the most sought-after talents in Europe.
Born in a poor suburb of Paris, losing his father while a young teenager and being thought of as too frail to make a top footballer, Mahrez has overcome a few obstacles along the way. Even signing for Leicester from Le Havre in the French second division was something of a chance happening, as the Midlands club had gone to scout another player that day, but Mahrez stole the show. He also helped Leicester to the Championship title and then his goals and assists were instrumental in the club’s superhuman survival effort last term.
Beth Mead has been named the PFA Women’s Young Player of the Year 2016.
Beth Mead enjoyed a sensational first season among the elite in 2015, top-scoring in FA WSL1 with 12 goals in 14 games as Sunderland took flight following their promotion. The 20-year-old striker was named the FA WSL1 Players’ Player of the Year, a measure of the respect her opponents have for her, and Vauxhall’s Young England Player of the Year.
A direct and pacey forward who likes to play off the shoulder of the last defender, Mead has the habit of scoring goals out of nothing.
She prospered against the best teams, scoring in a televised first game of the season at then WSL1 champions Liverpool and plundering a hat-trick against eventual champions Chelsea.
Mead also played a big part in the WSL2 champions continuing to upset the odds. Good on the ball and keeping it when necessary, she can play high up the pitch and looks to bring her team-mates into the action, which is important as the lone striker. There is also a willingness to work hard on the counter-attack to try and get in behind defences, and to chase hard when the team don’t have possession.
Ryan Giggs has been awarded the PFA Merit Award at the 2016 PFA Awards at the Grosvenor House in London on Sunday.
It is a quarter of a century since a 17-year-old Ryan Giggs, with a bouncing mop of boy-band hair, set about beguiling football, running thrillingly down the left wing for Manchester United and Wales.
Inevitably, they called him ‘the new George Best’, but not even British football’s greatest player could come close to matching the statistics stacked up by one-club man Giggs – a staggering 963 matches for United along with 168 goals, plus 64 games and 12 goals for Wales, since making his League debut against Everton at Old Trafford on March 2, 1991, as a substitute.
Giggs’ roll call of glory may never be surpassed: winners’ medals in 13 Premier Leagues, four FA Cups, three League Cups, two Champions Leagues, a World Club Cup, an Intercontinental Cup, a UEFA Super Cup and nine FA Community Shields.
Jamie Vardy’s record goal-scoring achievement has been honoured at the 2016 PFA Awards.
The Leicester City and England striker became the first player to score in 11 consecutive Premier League matches, breaking Ruud van Nistelrooy's record.
Dutchman Van Nistelrooy achieved his feat for Manchester United across two seasons in 2003.
Speaking at the time (November 2015), Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri said Vardy's record was "an incredible achievement".
Credit: PFA
No comments:
Post a Comment