Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne was named the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Players’ Player of the Year (PFA POTY) on Sunday for the second consecutive season. His remarkable efforts in leading his side in winning the Premier League and the Carabao Cup rendered an extremely successful 2020/21 season.
Due to injury troubles, De Bruyne only made 25 league games. However, that did not hinder him from scoring 6 goals and registering 12 assists, all of which were essential in City’s Premier League title.
The Belgian becomes only the third player in history to win the trophy for a second successive season, joining the ranks of Cristiano Ronaldo and Thiery Henry. The Portuguese International achieved the accolade while playing for Manchester United in 2007 and 2008. The Arsenal legend and former French international, who was the first to do so, won the awards in 2003 and 2004.
The nominees for the award this season reflected the dominance of Manchester City, as four out of the six were Pep Guardiola’s men, namely Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Ruben Dias, and Phil Foden (the youngster was also included in the PFA young player of the year nominees; ended up winning that award). The other two remarkable players featured were Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes, and Tottenham’s Harry Kane.
De Bruyne, who has been Man City’s talismanic player over the years, said on winning the award “I am becoming more of a leader on the pitch, off the pitch. I am learning a lot about myself; about the way the team is run and it can only help me for the future. You want to win all the trophies with the team and then obviously if you win a trophy like this, this is probably the most important one as an individual trophy in the league. To be voted by your competitors who you compete with every game, that says a lot. They are the people, in my view, who know the most about the game and they are trying to get to the best level. When you have these things, you can show your kids and say, ‘look, this is what daddy did when he was younger.’”
