There may have been odd occasions when the PFA Player of the Year – the ultimate accolade given to a footballer by his fellow professionals – could have been disputed.
Perhaps one club’s cohort simply refused to vote for the front-runner because he played for their arch-rivals or because it might mean their own team-mate being overlooked.
And I also do remember in the spring of 1999 when the Premier League shortlist contained so many players from one club that the vote was split and an outsider (albeit a talented outsider) emerged as the victor.
For the most part, though, the best player in the country has shone through.
No-one can say otherwise in 2022 either.
For Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah has been the outstanding player in a Premier League season which remained compelling to the very end and, but for six mad, magical and monumental minutes, would have also seen the Egyptian also winning English football’s top prize.
That the respected Liverpool number 11 was named top of the pile by both his peers and the country’s leading footballer writers to secure a double confirmed his accolade was thoroughly deserved.
In fact, Salah who first won the award in 2017/18, has now become the seventh player to win the PFA award twice and my word he is in good company.
Kevin de Bruyne, Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Alan Shearer and Mark Hughes are the only other players to win the award – which was first presented to Norman Hunter in 1974 – more than once.
Salah’s latest honour came as recognition for a superb season in which he scored 23 goals and provided 13 assists in 35 appearances comprising Premier League highlights galore.
He also shared the Premier League ‘Golden Boot’ with Tottenham’s Son Heung-min, while finishing the season as the player with the most assists.
It was last autumn, when the season was still in its infancy, that the Independent writer Miguel Delaney outlined what he felt set Salah apart from his contemporaries.
And I agreed with every word when he wrote: ‘…he is so consistent that his contributions are often taken for granted. He hasn’t just kept scoring regularly for Liverpool. He’s kept scoring crucial goals, equalisers and match-winners.
‘Salah was already the most decisive player in the Premier League. He is currently the most devastating again, just wreaking havoc in the way he did in 2017-18 when he won the Player of the Year award, so perhaps wrestling that status as the league’s outstanding star from Kevin De Bruyne.
‘That alone will give rise to bigger debates: whether Salah is actually the best player in Europe; whether he’s the best player in Liverpool’s history. They end up coming down to subjectives, but the fact someone even has a claim is impressive enough.’
Although they have a squad which is actually deeper in key areas than their main challengers domestically, Manchester City and Chelsea, Salah is probably – alongside centre back Virgil van Dijk – the one player they can ill afford to lose.
To put into context, he is adored by Liverpool fans more than anyone since the days of ‘King Kenny’ Dalglish in the 1970s and 80s and he has had a wider influence in the region.
Since Salah’s arrival in 2017, incidents of Islamophobia plummeted in Liverpool, according to a study by researchers at Stanford University in their Immigration Policy Lab. The research discovered a 19 per cent reduction in hate crimes against Muslims on Merseyside, leading academics to conclude that his prominent position as a fans’ idol has led to an increased familiarity and empathy with Islam in the region.
The reason for the fans’ adoration is clear. While he plays alongside other talents, Salah has delivered more consistently than anyone and has genius in his boots. His strike in a 2-2 draw with Manchester City last season was described by an SBOTOP colleague of mine as one of the goals of the century as he slammed past the best defence in the league before finishing beautifully in the far corner.
There is no doubt at the age of 29 he is in his prime and, given that Chelsea found no room for him nor de Bruyne in their ranks – those two largely considered the best players in the English top flight in recent years – it makes you wonder what the management at Stamford Bridge around 2014 were looking for.
Certainly, both players have come back to haunt their former employer aplenty in recent seasons and it’s hard to imagine either is finished just yet.
The Premier League betting odds will always back them.
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