Premier League Player of the Season

Premier League Player of the Season
Manchester City player Phil Foden is the current holder of the award.
Awarded forThe most outstanding player in each given Premier League season
Sponsored byEA Sports
CountryEngland
Presented byPremier League
First awarded1995
Currently held byPhil Foden
Highlights
Most awardsThierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nemanja Vidić, Kevin De Bruyne (2)
Most consecutive winsCristiano Ronaldo (2)
Most team winsManchester United (8)
Most consecutive team winsManchester United, Manchester City (5)
Websitehttps://www.premierleague.com/awards?at=2&aw=20&se=-1 Edit this on Wikidata
Thierry Henry, wearing a red shirt with white long sleeves and shorts with a number 12 and Nike logo on the left-leg side, applauds.
Nemanja Vidić, wearing a red Manchester United jersey with the AIG sponsor logo at the front centre and shorts with a number 15 and Nike logo on the left-leg side, looks forward with his mouth partly opened.
Thierry Henry (left), Cristiano Ronaldo (not pictured), Nemanja Vidić (right) and Kevin De Bruyne (not pictured) have won the most Player of the Season awards with two each.

The Premier League Player of the Season is an annual association football award presented to players in England, which recognises the most outstanding player in the Premier League each season. The recipient is chosen by a panel assembled by the league's sponsors consisting of members of "football's governing bodies, the media and fans", and is announced in the second or third week of May.[1][2] For sponsorship purposes, from 1994 to 2001 it was called the Carling Player of the Year; from 2001 to 2004 as the Barclaycard Player of the Year;[3] and from 2004 to 2016 as the Barclays Player of the Season.[4][failed verification][5] Since the 2016–17 season, it is called the EA Sports Player of the Season.

The Premier League was founded in 1992, when the clubs of the First Division left the Football League and established a new commercially independent league that negotiated its own broadcast and sponsorship agreements.[4] The newly formed league had no sponsor for its inaugural season until Carling agreed to a four-year £12 million deal that started the following season.[6] That same season, Carling introduced individual awards for players, such as the Golden Boot.[7] However, the Player of the Month and Player of the Season awards were only first bestowed during the 1994–95 season.[8][9] The first Player of the Season award was given to Blackburn Rovers striker Alan Shearer, who won the Premier League title with his team and the Golden Boot that season.[9][10]

Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nemanja Vidić and Kevin De Bruyne have been Player of the Season on two occasions each and are the only players to have won the award more than once, with Ronaldo having achieved this in consecutive years (2007 and 2008). Eight players were the Premier League's leading goalscorer and won the Golden Boot alongside the Player of the Season award.[11][12] Four of these players – Kevin Phillips,[13] Henry,[14] Ronaldo and Luis Suárez – went on to win the European Golden Shoe in the same season.[15][16] 11 players have won the Premier League trophy with their respective clubs in the same year they received the award, with Ronaldo and Vidić each accomplishing the feat on two occasions with Manchester United.[1][17] Ronaldo is the only player to be named Player of the Season and win the FIFA World Player of the Year; when he accomplished this in 2008, he became the first player from the Premier League to be voted the world's top footballer.[18] In 2023 Manchester City's Erling Haaland became the first player in Premier League history to win both Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season awards for the same campaign.[19]

The current holder of the award is Manchester City's Phil Foden.

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference ronaldo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Ferguson and Vidic land awards". ESPN. 21 May 2011. Archived from the original on 28 June 2014. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  3. ^ "Premier League Awards". Premier League. Archived from the original on 10 December 2006. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  4. ^ a b "History of the Premier League". Premier League. Archived from the original on 21 April 2012. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hazard was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Jones, Peter (19 January 2001). "Why Carling called time on Premiership". BBC Sport. BBC. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  7. ^ "Top Ten – Golden Boot". Sky Sports. May 2010. Archived from the original on 8 October 2014. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  8. ^ "Seasonal Awards 1993/94". Premier League. Archived from the original on 9 December 2006. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  9. ^ a b "Seasonal Awards 1994/95". Premier League. Archived from the original on 11 December 2006. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  10. ^ "Van Persie follows in Shearer's footsteps". FIFA. 20 May 2013. Archived from the original on 8 June 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  11. ^ Pearce, James (13 May 2014). "Luis Suarez named Barclays Player of the Season". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  12. ^ "Van Persie wins Premier League Golden Boot". Arsenal F.C. 14 May 2012. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  13. ^ Whooley, Declan (23 December 2013). "Will Luis Suarez break the Premier League goal scoring record this season?". Irish Independent. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
  14. ^ "Golden Shoe fits for Thierry Henry". Arsenal F.C. 31 May 2005. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
  15. ^ Pontes, Carlos (14 September 2008). "Ronaldo receives Golden Boot in his native Madeira". Reuters. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
  16. ^ "Ronaldo and Suárez share Golden Shoe accolade". UEFA. 19 May 2014. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
  17. ^ "Sir Alex Ferguson and Nemanja Vidic win season awards". BBC Sport. BBC. 20 May 2011. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference WPY was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference Haaland23 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).