It will be bittersweet after the mess that was Man City’s Champions League ouster at the hands of Lyon, but Kevin De Bruyne is the Premier League’s Player of the Year.
De Bruyne’s record-equalling 20-assist season joined his 13 goals in making City the Premier League runners-up. He was one of two players (Mohamed Salah) in the league with double-digit goals and assists in PL play.
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There is little question that De Bruyne has had the best season in the league but there were some arguments made for Liverpool players after the Reds won the title, and Jordan Henderson was given the Football Writers’ Association award after captaining Liverpool in a career season.
Ironically, Liverpool had players claim the award the past two seasons when Man City won the PL, with Mohamed Salah winning in 2017-18 and Virgil van Dijk claiming the award last season.
De Bruyne beat Danny Ings (Southampton), Nick Pope (Burnley), Jamie Vardy (Leicester City), and Liverpool tiro Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jordan Henderson and Sadio Mane.
If you want to have any beef with the award, have beef with almost all vote-based awards. If you believe the award should go to a member of the champions than Leroy Sane and De Bruyne should be retroactively given the last two. And if you believe someone had a better season than De Bruyne, then make the argument without using the word “grit” or “leadership.”