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Virgil Van Dijk Wins PFA Players' Player Of The Year Award

Virgil Van Dijk Wins PFA Players' Player Of The Year Award

The Liverpool defender was up against Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero, Bernardo Silva, Sadio Mane and Eden Hazard for the award.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

Virgil van Dijk won the first individual award of the season as he beat Raheem Sterling and four others to claim the PFA Players' Player of the Year Award.



No one can begrudge Virgil van Dijk being named as the PFA Players' Player of the Year.

The Liverpool centre back has made a huge difference to Jurgen Klopp's team in the 18 months since he joined from Southampton.He has transformed Liverpool from top four contenders to battling neck and neck with Manchester City for the title, along with the addition of Alisson in goal.

Van Dijk was excellent in the second half of last season, after becoming the world's most expensive ever centre back when joining the Reds from Southampton, but this term he has been even better.

For a big chunk of the last few months he has been spoken about a potential individual award winner and it has seemed that only Raheem Sterling stood in his way.

As well as the Manchester City winger, Sergio Aguero, Bernardo Silva, Sadio Mane and Eden Hazard were named as the nominees for this year's award.

Earlier in the week the Daily Mail revealed that the 27 year old was going to win the award and on Sunday night at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London the news was confirmed.

It really came as no surprise with the stats backing up his fellow players decision to vote for the defender:

Van Dijk's stats show just how good he's been. Image: Sky Sports
Van Dijk's stats show just how good he's been. Image: Sky Sports

It's the second season in a row that a Liverpool player has won the award with Mo Salah unsurprisingly picking up the title last season, when he topped the goalscoring charts.

But it's not all good news for fans of the Reds as the previous two occasions their players have won the award Manchester City won the title, with Luis Suarez also winning the vote in 2014.

Salah with the PFA Player of the Year trophy. Image: PA
Salah with the PFA Player of the Year trophy. Image: PA

Sterling can consider himself pretty unlucky not to win the award after scoring 17 goals and assisting another 10 in the league this season.

However blow will be softened for Sterling and City if they can win their remaining two fixtures and defend their Premier League title.

For now though the night and the season belong to Van Dijk, the first defender to be named Players' Player of the Year since John Terry in 2005.

What a season it's been for Liverpool's centre back, but will it get even better?

Featured Image Credit:

Topics: Manchester City, Liverpool, Player Of The Year, Football News, Eden Hazard, Sergio Aguero, PFA, Premier League, Virgil Van Dijk, Bernardo Silva, Sadio Mane, Raheem Sterling

Ryan is a writer for SPORTbible. He covers all sport from football, formula one, cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics, mma and wrestling. He obviously hates YOUR football team and has no interest in synchronised swimming.

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@Sidler28