Manchester City have 2024 Player of the Year

Phil Foden was already a Premier League star. He just needed an award to confirm it, and now he has one. The Manchester City academy product succeeds his teammate Erling Haaland to win the ‘Player of the Season’ award for the 2023-2024 Premier League season, as Pep Guardiola’s juggernaut targets an unprecedented fourth consecutive title on Sunday.

Phil Foden stats for EPL Player of the Year

For the fifth consecutive year (following Kevin De Bruyne in 2020 and 2022, Rúben Dias in 2021, and Erling Haaland in 2023), a Man City player has been individually elevated to the heights of English football, with the likes of teammate Rodri Hernández and Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice also in the running.

The ‘Stockport Iniesta,’ still with one match remaining in the domestic league season – at home to West Ham – has amassed 17 goals and eight assists. But the 23-year-old graduate is much more than statistics. Established in the first team for several seasons and a favorite of Guardiola, it is in the 2023-2024 season that Foden has emerged as City’s superstar. At crucial times, ‘the Sniper,’ as his captain Kyle Walker calls him, was the most decisive player for the Manchester side.

What about Haaland and De Bruyne?

With Erling Haaland experiencing a dip in form and Kevin De Bruyne injured for key parts of the season, it was the English midfielder who, alongside Rodri Hernández, carried the team through many matches to potentially secure another Premier League title for City. Having consecutively won the ‘Young Player of the Season’ award in 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, making him the only player to win that accolade twice, Foden now makes his definitive assault on Premier League stardom. Chelsea’s Cole Palmer won this year’s YPOTY, after joining the London club from City last summer.

It’s fair to say that Guardiola anticipated this award last March.

“He is the best player in the Premier League right now for the number of things he does,” said the Spanish coach. “Incredible.” A player who navigates tight spaces like no other, with a vision and quality deserving of such an award. Across all competitions, his numbers soar to 25 goals and 10 assists.