How very organised of them.
The advent of The FIFA Best Awards, earlier this week, caused some chagrin when Lionel Messi won the top men’s prize ahead of goal glutton, Erling Haaland. It also led to an interesting observation from Jamie Carragher.
The former Liverpool and England defender debated awards – how fair or unfair many are, voting processes, and how much (or little) they mean to players – on the latest episode of Stick To Football. Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane claimed to be indifferent to personal footballing accolades, yet is still sore that only two teammates were in attendance when he was named PFA Player of the Year, back in 2000.
The chat, which also included Jill Scott, Gary Neville and Ian Wright, circled around to how much awards are discussed, and plotted around, in senior squads [chat starts at 26:15 in clip below].
Wright said he often voted for players, when nominations were being sought, on how they performed when they played against his teams. Carragher commented:
“Did [the votes] ever get political, when you were doing it? I’d get the forms and whack them out, and if we thought that someone had a decent chance at winning – say Stevie [Gerrard] or [Fernando] Torres – Player of the Year, we’d be like, ‘Well no-one can vote for his rival’. I’d make sure of it.”
“That’s childish,” a smiling Keane chided.”Very immature!”
“Disgraceful,” added Wright.
During his time with Liverpool ‘s senior squad, 1996 to 2013, Steven Gerrard was the only teammate of Carragher to win the PFA Player of the Year award. That same season, 2005/06, was the one and only team Carragher was voted on to the PFA Team of the Year, an honour Gerrard had eight times.
The season after he retired [2013/14], Luis Suarez picked up the award. In recent years, Mo Salah [twice] and Virgil Van Dijk have been named PFA Player of the Year.
Jamie Carragher speaking on Stick To Football and, right, with Steven Gerrard. (Credit: Getty)Jamie Carragher on PFA frontrunners
Ian Wright did add that he would also base his final votes on what other bits of the top players he had caught on TV. Roy Keane, meanwhile, was still hung up on Jamie Carragher and the Liverpool lads possibly snubbing Manchester United players for award votes.
Gary Neville then turned the chat to frontrunners for the 2023/24 PFA Player of the Year accolade.
CARRAGHER – Trent Alexander-Arnold or Bernardo Silva
WRIGHT – Trent Alexander-Arnold
NEVILLE – Son Heung-min
SCOTT – Declan Rice
There are still 17 or 18 [depending on the sides] games to be played in the Premier League season but nomination and voting ballots often go out before the final raft of matches, so a winner can be decided before players jet off on the summer breaks.
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