Foden named the Premier League’s best young player, followed by Saka and Gallagher

This year’s Premier League Young Player of the Year award presented by the Professional Footballers’ Association went to Manchester City’s Phil Foden, following on from his triumph last season.

Bukayo Saka

According to many, Foden stole the trophy, so to speak, from the hands of fellow England international Bukayo Saka, who dragged Arsenal London through the ranks with his performances. In 38 rounds played, the 20-year-old winger managed to score 11 goals and 7 assists. The penalty underdog from last year’s European Championship gave a glimpse of how crucial he could be for the future of the north London club.

Emil Smith-Rowe

The Gunners had another of their offspring among the nominees in the person of Emil Smith-Rowe. The offensive all-rounder, capable of playing in the middle and on the edge of the midfield formation, was also in double figures for goals scored and along with Saka and the in-form Martin Ødegaard, he took care of most of the offensive forays for Mikel Arteta’s young team.

Conor Gallagher

Among the nominees for the best player under twenty-one was Conor Gallagher, who played a very impressive season on loan at Crystal Palace and sent a clear signal to the Chelsea manager, to whom the skilful midfielder belongs, that he deserves to fight for a place in the Blues squad. He too added his signature to the double-digit goal tally.

Reece James

Chelsea too had two handcuffs in the fire, if we take Gallagher as their playmaker. The other was right-back, if you want to be more specific, wingback, Reece James, who unlike the Epsom native actually defended the colours of the Stamford Bridge club in the season just ended.

Thanks to the style of play and formation that Thomas Tuchel prescribes for his charges, he had plenty of opportunities to demonstrate not only his defensive skills, but often primarily offensive ones, thanks to which he scored 9 goal assists.

Jacob Ramsey

The last footballer in the six selected was Aston Villa’s Steven Gerrard-led midfielder Jacob Ramsey. The Villans winger with the unusual number 41 on his jersey made obvious progress between the 20/21 season and the one just ended.

Especially in the second half of the season, he was the driving force of his team along with Philippe Coutinho and he was able to confirm his performances with goals. Few probably expected the Birmingham native to be on the shortlist at the start of the season, but Ramsey has proven his quality and Steven Gerrard’s bet on the young midfielder has clearly paid off so far.

Phil Foden’s performances have put him in the company of Ryan Giggs, Robbie Fowler, Lauren Hemp, Wayne Rooney and Dele Alli as players who have been a hundred winners in this poll in two consecutive seasons.

His success is all the more remarkable because he has managed to assert himself in the huge competition of Pep Guardiola’s squad, who often does not hesitate to put hundreds of millions of dollars worth of reinforcements on the bench just for the benefit of the Citizens offspring.

Source: Transfermarkt, OneFootball