Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard have both been nominated for the PFA Players’ Player of the Year Award.
The inclusion on the six-man shortlist comes after both players impressed in the 2022/23 season as Arsenal finished runners-up.
Both players were also nominated for a raft of other awards at the tail-end of the last campaign (Premier League Player of the Year, PFA Fans’ Player of the Year, FWA Footballer of the Year) but repeatedly missed out to Manchester City robot Erling Haaland.
Being realistic, the same will happen this time around but it’s great to see our boys being recognised for their development on the pitch.
Saka and Gabriel Martinelli have also been nominated for the PFA Players’ Young Player of the Year award, however, competition is again fierce with Haaland also qualifying.
Full shortlist for Player of the Year:
Martin Odegaard, Arsenal
Bukayo Saka, Arsenal
Erling Haaland, Manchester City
Kevin De Bruyne, Manchester City
John Stones, Manchester City
Harry Kane, Not Sp*rs
Full shortlist for Young Player of the Year
Moises Caicedo, Brighton/Chelsea
Evan Ferguson, Brighton
Erling Haaland, Manchester City
Gabriel Martinelli, Arsenal
Bukayo Saka, Arsenal
Jacob Ramsey, Aston Villa
They deserve to be the top two in the voting. Last season wasn’t predicted by anyone at the start of it and a lot of it was down to these two.
Though Saliba should have been on the list and would have been if he’d played the whole season.
But this isn’t Arsenal player of the year. They failed to maintain their form or mental toughness at the end of the year. Saka and Ode remain top top top top players but this is how it works. Henry failed to score goals in the CL final of 2006, Ballon d’Or was given to Ronaldinho.
John Stones ahead of Rodri ?😄😄😄
Artificial Intelligence takes them all
It’s a silly thing to get angry about but I fucking hate when the same player wins senior and young. Why not discount the winner of the senior and let someone else enjoy an award seeing as you’re obviously the best young player if you win the fucking main award. Now to go breathe.
I’ve never really understood–and I think many of the people who vote for these awards don’t either–whether this is for the “best player,” or the player who is most important to his club, or some combination of both. Saka and Odegaard were our best players last year, I guess, but Saliba was perhaps the most important, as his absence proved. Can a player who is central to the modest success of a mediocre–or crap–team qualify? If so, then Declan Rice or Zaha ought to be considered, alongside Kane.
Haaland all the way