Gabon’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Senegal’s Sadio Mané were named in the 2019/2020 Professional Footballers’ Association’s Premier League Team of the Year.
The team, which was revealed on Wednesday, is dominated by players from defending champions Liverpool with five players, followed by runners-up Manchester and Leicester City, each with two, and Arsenal and Burnley with one player each.
Aubameyang netted 22 goals, one shy of eventual winner Jamie Vardy of Leicester City, as Arsenal finished in eighth. Aubameyang also won the Premier League Player of the Month award in September.
Mané, who won the Premier League title with Liverpool, scored 18 league goals during the season. That meant Mané had hit double figures in all his six seasons in England (four with Liverpool and two with Southampton). Mané was also named Premier League Player of the Month in November.
In the previous season, Aubameyang and Mané shared the Premier League Golden Boot with Egypt’s Mohamed Salah after scoring 22 goals each. Salah, however, missed out on making the team this season.
Other surprise omissions from the squad were Brazilian goalkeepers Alisson of Liverpool and Ederson of Manchester City and England striker Danny Ings of Southampton.
The time which lined up in a 4-3-3 formation looked as follows: Nick Pope (Burnley); Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil Van Dijk (both Liverpool), Caglar Soyuncu (Leicester), Andrew Robertson (Liverpool); David Silva (Manchester City), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City); Jamie Vardy (Leicester), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal), Sadio Mane (Liverpool).
Mané was also one of six players who lost out to Manchester City and Belgium midfielder Kevin De Bruyne who was named 2019/20 Premier League Player of the Season. De Bruyne scored 13 goals and contributed a record-equaling 20 assists as City finished in second place 18 points behind Liverpool.
De Bruyne also made history becoming the first Manchester City player to win the award since it was created in the 1973-74 season.
For his 20 assists, De Bruyne picked up the Playmaker award and also had two strikes nominated for the Goal of the Season award.
