Erling Haaland becomes the first player in history to scoop both PL Player of the Season and the Young Player of the Season awards.
The 22-year-old Erling Haaland has made a seismic impact in English football since completing a £51million switch to Manchester City last summer. Haaland has plundered a remarkable 52 goals in 51 games to fire Pep Guardiola’s side to the brink of a remarkable treble.
The Norwegian prodigy was crowned as the Football Writer’s Association Mens Footballer of the Year earlier this week. He has now followed that up with a historic double after bagging both of the league’s official awards.
Haaland has been recognised after bagging 36 league goals this season. This is the highest tally of any player in Premier League history. His goals played a crucial role as Man City clawed back an eight point deficit against Arsenal in the title race.
And the former Borussia Dortmund ace could yet mark his maiden campaign at the Etihad with two more pieces of silverware: City still have the FA Cup final and the Champions League final to come before their unstoppable squad heads off on their summer break.
After picking up the top gong at the FWA awards earlier this week, Haaland insisted that his compatriot Martin Odegaard would have also been a worthy winner for his impressive exploits at Arsenal.
The prolific forward said: “If I had to pick another player to have won Player of the Year, I would say my Norwegian friend, [Martin] Odegaard has had a really good season”.
“There are also other teammates that could have easily won it because there’s a lot of players in the Manchester City team that have been outstanding this season. If you watch all of our games, you will see that Rodri has just been so solid throughout the whole season.
“I think sometimes he is a bit hidden because he is in midfield and he’s the one pulling everything together. I don’t want to say too many names, but maybe it could have been one of them.”
He also claimed Manchester City teammate Rodri could “easily” have won the award. Haaland added: “There are also other teammates that could have easily won it because there’s a lot of players in the Manchester City team that have been outstanding this season.
“If you watch all of our games, you will see that Rodri has just been so solid throughout the whole season.
“I think sometimes he is a bit hidden because he is in midfield and he’s the one pulling everything together. I don’t want to say too many names, but maybe it could have been one of them.”