Erling Haaland named 2022/23 Premier League Player of the Season

Manchester City striker Erling Haaland has won the 2022/23 Premier League Player of the Season award.

On a shortlist which also featured Kevin De Bruyne, Harry Kane, Martin Odegaard, Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Kieran Trippier, Haaland was always seen as the favourite after a record-breaking season which culminated in Premier League glory for City.

The award was decided from a combination of a public vote, a panel of experts and the captains from each of the 20 Premier League sides, with Haaland becoming the third consecutive City player to pick up the prize after De Bruyne and centre-back Ruben Dias.

De Bruyne won in both 2019/20 and 2021/22, with Dias’ triumph coming in between in 2020/21, so Haaland’s victory is actually the fourth on the bounce for a City player.

Haaland’s debut season in the Premier League has undoubtedly been one to remember. The Norwegian broke the record for most goals scored in a single campaign, eclipsing the 34 goals netted by Alan Shearer and Andy Cole to climb up to 36 strikes – a tally which could increase in Sunday’s season finale against Brentford.

With 52 goals in all competitions, Haaland is behind only Everton legend Dixie Dean in the record books in English top-flight football. Dean bagged a ludicrous 63 goals in the 1927/28 campaign and is the only player to ever outscore Haaland at the top of the English game.

This latest accolade comes just days after Haaland picked up the FWA Footballer of the Year on Thursday.

“I didn’t expect it to be this good!” the striker said when accepting that first prize. “I expected it to be good of course.

“To come into a team that’s been scoring many goals while winning the Premier League a lot of times – two in a row now three, I expected to do good things but to do this I didn’t quite expect.”