City's Kevin De Bruyne wins PFA Player of the Year award
Sep 09, 2020
Manchester [UK], September 9 : Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne has become the first male player from the club to win the Professional Footballers' Association's (PFA) Player of the Year award.
In the women's category, Chelsea's Bethany England has won the award.
"Chelsea's Bethany England and Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne have been crowned PFA Players' Player of the Year for 2020," PFA said in a statement.
The midfielder beat teammate Raheem Sterling and the Liverpool quartet of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jordan Henderson, Sadio Mane, and last year's winner, Virgil van Dijk, to the 2019/20 prize.
Voted for by his fellow professionals, the prestigious award recognised De Bruyne's sustained excellence last season, which also saw him named in the PFA's Team of the Year for the second time.
Expressing elation over winning the accolade, De Bruyne said it is a "big honour".
"It is a big honour. To be voted by your colleagues, your competitors from other teams who we play against on the field, is amazing," the club's official website quoted De Bruyne as saying at the virtual ceremony.
"It is maybe strange that I'm the first one at City, with all the good players who played there before and are still playing, but it is nice to represent the club. I think it is [the ultimate honour] because you compete against them [fellow professionals]. They want to win the trophies; they want to be the best. It is everybody voting, not a few players, so that means you have done really well in the season," he added.
In what proved to be the best individual campaign of his City career, the 29-year-old was directly involved in more goals than any other player in the Premier League. He scored 13 times -- his best return in the competition -- whilst his 20 assists equalled Thierry Henry's 17-year record.
