David De Gea is looking like a shoo-in to nail down the goalkeeper’s spot in the PFA Team of the Year for the fourth consecutive year.
De Gea is heavy favourite to beat out the likes of Thibaut Courtois, Ederson and Hugo Lloris come the end of the season and early glimpses at players’ selections show that the Spanish stopper is as popular as ever.
Leicester’s Danny Simpson picked De Gea as his last line of defence last week, as did Stoke City centre-forward Peter Crouch.
And ahead of Saturday’s Manchester derby, Kevin De Bruyne has revealed that De Gea has also made his XI.
Speaking to BT Sport, the Manchester City playmaker gave a sneak peek at his voting slip and eagle-eyed viewers spotted that United right back Antonio Valencia was also named in De Bruyne’s back four.
Unable to pick from his teammates, De Bruyne selected Tottenham Hotspur’s Jan Vertonghen, Burnley’s James Tarkowski and Chelsea’s Marcos Alonso in defence, while he didn’t let supporters in on his midfield or attack.
De Bruyne could well have voted for international compatriot Romelu Lukaku up top but we’ll just have to wait and see with that, while the Belgian midfielder understandably opted for Liverpool talisman Mo Salah as his Player of the Year.
“I voted for Salah. He deserves it. If it’s no-one from our team, I think he deserves it,” De Bruyne said. “I don’t look at what happened before, I wouldn’t know how to choose anybody else, outside of Salah, if it’s not our team.”
The Player of the Year award is expected to be a two-horse race between De Bruyne and Salah, who has had an incredible debut season with the Reds.
De Bruyne understands that Salah’s remarkable goal tally could well result in the Egyptian pipping him to the post but he’s happy to let the best man win.
He added: “I’m fair. If he wins, he wins. I think he’s up there with Kane, me and Silva. They’re the four best players of this year, constantly. I’m honest about voting. I vote for him if he deserves it. If other people don’t do it, I don’t mind.”
