Premier League awards: Pep Guardiola and Ruben Dias win big
Premier League 2020-21 champions Manchester City claimed the big prizes in the season awards. Defender Ruben Dias was adjudged Premier League Player of the Season. Dias was earlier crowned Football Writers' Association (FWA) Footballer of the Year last month. Meanwhile, Man City manager Pep Guardiola was named Premier League Manager of the Season for the third time in four years. Here's more.
The Player of the Season award was decided by votes from the public on the EA Sports website. This was also combined with those of the 20 Premier League club captains and a panel of football experts. The other nominees were Kevin De Bruyne, Harry Kane, Bruno Fernandes, Mohamed Salah, Mason Mount, Tomas Soucek, and Jack Grealish.
Dias had joined Man City from Benfica last summer for about £65m. The star defender made 32 league appearances for City and was part of 15 out of their 19 clean sheets. Notably, City won 23 of the Premier League matches Dias played, as they also won the Carabao Cup and finished as runners-up in the UEFA Champions League.
Dias joined former defenders Nemanja Vidic (twice), Vincent Kompany, and Virgil van Dijk to win the Premier League Player of the Season award. Dias made 24 tackles, 35 interceptions, and 90 clearances for City in the Premier League 2020-21 season. He also made 135 recoveries and won 111 duels. He also contributed with 109 accurate long balls. The 23-year-old scored one goal.
Guardiola was also adjudged Premier League Manager of the Season in 2017-18 and 2018-19 respectively. This was Guardiola's third league title in five seasons at the club. Guardiola is now level with Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho in terms of this award. Sir Alex Ferguson (11) leads the tally. In May, Guardiola was named the League Managers' Association (LMA) Manager of the Year.
Tottenham's Erik Lamela was awarded Premier League Goal of the Season for his 'rabona' finish against Arsenal. His audacious shot had gone through the legs of Arsenal mid-fielder Thomas Partey before beating goal-keeper Bernd Leno. Meanwhile, Phil Foden was awarded Premier League Young Player of the Season. The versatile mid-fielder topped an eight-player shortlist.
