Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah wins PFA Player of the Year award for unprecedented third time
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Mohamed Salah was the Premier League's top scorer last season, with his 29 goals, along with 18 assists, for Liverpool.
PHOTO: EPA
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- Mohamed Salah secured his third PFA Player of the Year award, excelling with 29 goals and 18 assists for Liverpool last season.
- Morgan Rogers and Olivia Smith were named Young Player of the Year; Mariona Caldentey was named Women's Player of the Year.
- The Premier League Team of the Year featured four Liverpool players alongside key players from Arsenal, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest.
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LONDON – Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah was named the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) Player of the Year on Aug 19, with the Egyptian becoming the first player to win the award three times.
Salah, who joined the Reds in 2017, was the Premier League’s top scorer last season, with his 29 goals, along with 18 assists, playing a key role in the club winning the league title, finishing 10 points ahead of runners-up Arsenal.
The 33-year-old had already clinched the Premier League Player of the Season award, the Golden Boot for most goals scored and the Playmaker award for most assists, making him the first to win all three in the same season.
Asked by the BBC if he had ambitions to win awards while growing up in Egypt, he said: “Of course, I wanted to be a football player and I wanted to be famous and provide for my family, but you don’t think about the big stuff when you are still in Egypt.
“When you grow, you start to see things differently and you start to have ambition and you start to see the bigger picture.”
Salah first won the PFA award in 2018 after his debut season at Liverpool, and again in 2022, and this year came out on top of a six-man shortlist, voted for by PFA members from the 92 Premier League and Football League teams.
Also on the shortlist were his Liverpool teammate Alexis Mac Allister, along with Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak, Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes, Arsenal’s Declan Rice and Chelsea’s Cole Palmer.
Salah signed a two-year contract extension with Liverpool in April, ending months of speculation linking him with a move to the Saudi Pro League.
Aston Villa and England midfielder Morgan Rogers was voted Young Player of the Year, after the 23-year-old registered 14 goals and 16 assists in all competitions, including a hat-trick against Celtic.
He said he wants to be one of the “incredible players people speak about”.
“Later down the line, I want to be one of those incredible players people speak about, so to do that, I have to do what they did and what they followed after,” he told BBC Sport.
“It’s a nice recognition but there’s more to win and I can’t wait.”
Arsenal midfielder Mariona Caldentey was named Women’s Player of the Year.
The Spaniard scored nine league goals in her first season with the club along with eight goals in the Champions League, where Arsenal beat her former club Barcelona to win the trophy for the first time in 18 years.
Canadian 21-year-old forward Olivia Smith, Liverpool’s leading scorer last season across all competitions with nine goals, picked up the Young Player of the Year award.
Smith has since joined Arsenal for a reported fee of £1 million (S$1.7 million), making her the first female player to break the seven-figure barrier.
Liverpool had four players from last season, including Salah, named in the Premier League Team of the Year, along with new signing from Bournemouth, Milos Kerkez.
Premier League Team of the Year:
Matz Sels (Nottingham Forest); Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool), Milos Kerkez (Bournemouth), William Saliba (Arsenal), Gabriel Magalhaes (Arsenal); Declan Rice (Arsenal), Ryan Gravenberch (Liverpool), Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool); Mohamed Salah (Liverpool), Alexander Isak (Newcastle United), Chris Wood (Nottingham Forest). REUTERS, AFP
