Awards

Mo Salah named PFA Player of the Year 2018- Sane wins Young POTY 2017-18

Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah has been officially named the PFA Player of the Year for the 2017/18 season. The Egyptian forward, who has scored 31 times in 33 league games for the Reds this season, beat Kevin de Bruyne, Harry Kane, Leroy Sane, David Silva and David de Gea to be named POTY.

Salah is the seventh Liverpool player to be named PFA Player of the Year, following in the footsteps of Terry McDermott, Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, John Barnes, Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez.

Man City’s Leroy Sane was named Young Player of the Year 2018, pipping Harry Kane, Ederson, Raheem Sterling, Ryan Sessegnon and Marcus Rashford to the award.

Salah was named in the PFA Team of the Year, but Sane narrowly missed out on featuring the XI that was announced a few days ago.

Chelsea’s Fran Kirby won the Womens’ Player of the Year award with Bristol City’s Lauren Hemp winning the Women’s Young Player of the Year

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PFA Team of the Year 2018- Sergio Aguero named in Premier League Team of the Season 2017-18

Argentina striker Sergio Aguero has been named in the PFA Premier League Team of the Season for the first time in his career. The 29 year old is one of five players from champions Man City to feature in the XI- Nicolas Otamendi, Kyle Walker, Kevin de Bruyne and David Silva are the other four.

Tottenham Hotspur have three representatives in this ToTY 17/18 in the form of Jan Vertonghen, Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane.

Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool are represented by one player each in the form of Marcos Alonso, David de Gea and Mo Salah respectively, which means the XI contains no player from outside the top six.

PFA Team of the Season 17/18– David de Gea; Marcos Alonso, Nicolas Otamendi, Jan Vertonghen, Kyle Walker; Christian Eriksen, Kevin de Bruyne, David Silva; Harry Kane, Sergio Aguero, Mohamed Salah

De Gea, Walker and Kane are the only three who were present in the 2016/17 Team of the Year too.

Team of the season by club:- Man City (5), Tottenham (3), Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool (all 1)

By Player Nationality:- Spain (3), England, Argentina and Belgium (2 each), Denmark and Egypt (1 each)

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Most Searched Footballer 2017- Philippe Coutinho? Highest trending Google soccer player in 2017

In search engine giant Google’s global list of trending people for the year 2017, Liverpool star Philippe Coutinho comes in at 10th, and is the only footballer in the list. Prima facie, this would make it appear that Coutinho was the most searched footballer on Google in 2017, but G only say that their trending list comprises of searches “that had a high spike in traffic in 2017 compared to 2016“. This may or may not make Coutinho the most searched footballer in 2017.

If you see the interest and volume chart below, it appears clear that interest in Coutinho peaked at the time he was linked to Barcelona (July and August 2017), and reduced after the rumours died down. It also, for one, shows the potential of Barcelona’s global fanbase.

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