Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante has been named as the PFA Player of the Year for 2016/17, beating the likes of Eden Hazard, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Harry Kane, Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez to the award.
Kante was on the six man shortlist in 2015/16 too, but missed out the award that eventually went to his Leicester teammate Riyad Mahrez.
The 26 year old has been a key figure for Antonio Conte’s side this season and is bidding to become the first player to get two successive PL winners’ medals with different clubs since the inception of the league as we currently know it back in 1992.
The midfielder is the fourth Frenchman to win the award in the modern Premiership era after Eric Cantona (93-94), David Ginola (98-99) and Thierry Henry (2002-03, 2003-04). He is also only the third Chelsea player to win the award after John Terry (2004-05) and Hazard (2014-15)
Tottenham’s Dele Alli was named the Young Player of the Year, while Man City’s Lucy Bronze repeated her 2014 triumph by picking up the Womens’ Player of the Year award.
Chelsea currently lead the league by 4 points from nearest rivals Spurs with six games to play. The Blues finished a lowly 10th last season, and Kante has been a major reason for the upturn in their fortunes this season.
