Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho believes only champions should receive the player of the year awards
Eden Hazard and Luis Suarez lead the running for this season's honours but Gareth Bale swept up last year's without Spurs winning a single trophy
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Jose Mourinho believes that the footballer of the year awards should go to players who assist their side in winning the league title, with the Chelsea manager suggesting that Gareth Bale shouldn’t have won last season’s PFA Player and Young Player of the year.
The former Tottenham winger was also awarded the Football Writers’ trophy for his superb form last season that led to his £86m move to Real Madrid. However, Spurs finished 17 points behind Premier League winners Manchester United as well as coming up short in the FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League.
The Evening Standard reports that Chelsea’s midfielder Eden Hazard is in the running for this season’s honours, although the bookmakers’ favourite remains Liverpool’s Luis Suarez, with the Uruguayan still the top scorer so far this campaign.
“Individual awards should be for the winners,” said Mourinho. “Last year, it happened to Gareth and not to a Manchester United player because Gareth was more than special.
“He had a fabulous season but normally individual awards are a consequence of a collective work, a team big award, which means winning the competitions.
“If I voted, I would always vote for a player who belongs to the champions. The most pre-eminent player must win the League. What happened with Gareth was outside the way I understand football. People should try to choose one of the champions. Football is about teams, not players.”
However, the issue is complicated by the voting for the PFA and FWA awards taking place before the end of the season. Mourinho thinks this is something that should be addressed.
“When a player from the champions gets the award, it’s normal,” he added. “The biggest award is the title. They should be waiting for the champions, and maybe you have to wait [for the voting] until the last game to do that.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments