Ah, the Premier League. The land where football’s soul went to die, and came back a walking zombie. Ethics and finances aside, there’s no doubt the league has some quality footballers, let’s try to explore the ones that stood out this year, shall we? The Tom Starke Award: Best Goalkeeper Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images Well you’ve shaved your head, you’ve changed your name, but the eyes, the eyes, the eyes are the same.
There were a couple of strong contenders with Alphonse Areola exceeding expectations and André Onana recovering in fantastic fashion after a strenuous start to the season but Tottenham Hotspur ’s new number one Guglielmo Vicario showed all of them up. Vicario didn’t miss a minute in the league after only just signing, being a crucial part of Spurs’ insane form at the start of the season, bailing out a sometimes unfocused defense to keep the team at the top of the table. Injuries and inconsistency from the outfield may have caused Spurs’ Champions League push to end unsuccessfully, but Vicario never let up, continuing his world class performances throughout.
Oh, such a perfect comedown from such a perfect day. The Dante Award: Best Defender I was fighting tooth and nail, until you found me bleeding. This season had quite a few impressive performances from the likes of William Saliba, Joško Gvardiol, Virgil van Dijk and Kieran Trippier, but the award must go to Everton ’s James Tarkowski .
It might seem strange awarding it to a player.
