Gary Lineker has claimed that there is a certain star at Manchester City who he views as the Player of The Year.
It was not specified whether Lineker was discussing the Premier League Player of The Season or the PFA Player of The Year award.
Regardless, City certainly have potential candidates for the award this season, potentially alongside Arsenal’s Declan Rice, William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes, Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk and Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins.
One of the rightful candidates would be Rodri, who Rio Ferdinand feels can go down as the best holding midfielder in Premier League history in the future.
Such are the levels the Spaniard has set over the years, with John Obi Mikel claiming last month that he has been the best player in the league this season.
Despite being a defensive midfielder, which is quite an unglamorous position, Rodri manages to spark headlines due to his sheer quality and consistency.
Gary Lineker says Manchester City star is his Player of The Year
Thierry Henry stated that the 27-year-old, alongside Kevin De Bruyne is one out of two of City’s most important players as well.
Week in and week out, it seems like the treble-winner finds new ways to showcase that despite being a sitting midfielder, he is a game-changer in every sense of the word.
Rodri rarely has a game that one would even class as average and especially this season where he has been exemplary.
Regardless of which midfielder he partners, the former Atletico Madrid technician virtually guarantees not to dip in terms of his standards, which must be a delight for Pep Guardiola.
However, Lineker did not name Rodri.
Nor did the popular pundit and presenter take Erling Haaland’s name, despite him leading the goalscoring charts this season with 19 goals.
Instead, Gary Lineker revealed that his vote for the Player of The Year award in the Premier League would be Phil Foden.
“There’s so many to choose from. At the moment, personally and it’s just my view, I think I’d vote [Phil] Foden but I’d like to wait a few more weeks”, he said about the £225,000-a-week midfielder on The Rest Is Football podcast.
“Now’s the nitty gritty. Now’s when the big boys stand up, quarter-final of the Champions League coming up for Arsenal and Man City, Liverpool are in the Europa League and the title race.”
It is one thing for Gary Lineker to make such a claim about Phil Foden but Pep Guardiola crowned him as the best player in the Premier League as well while speaking to Optus Sport after the Manchester Derby in March.
Phil Foden could win such an award due to having one advantage
Not many would disagree with Gary Lineker about Phil Foden being a worthy candidate to win such an award, even if their pick is another player in the Premier League.
But in our view, one advantage Foden has over the rest of his potential rivals for any such individual award is how entertaining he is to watch.
Football is entertainment and at the end of the day, the players who can wow viewers more than most are often grab the headlines.
There is a case to make that Phil Foden makes for better viewing than most players in the league and as a result, he might have an advantage over them, especially if they are defensive-minded in nature.
Only time will tell whether the Englishman does scoop up such an award but it would be lovely to see all his years of patience and perseverance rewarded in such a manner.