N'Golo Kante Named 2017 PFA Player of the Year over Eden Hazard, Others

Chelsea's N'Golo Kante won his maiden PFA Players' Player of the Year award on Sunday, beating out team-mate Eden Hazard, Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane, Manchester United's Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Everton's Romelu Lukaku and Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez:

Hazard took second place in the voting, with Ibrahimovic finishing third.

The France international was one of the favourites for last year's award but lost out to Riyad Mahrez, so this year's win will feel like redemption. He played a key role in Leicester City's title run in 2015-16 and is likely to win the Premier League again this season with Chelsea.

The 26-year-old was last season's top breakout performer, impressing with his absurd work rate and range in midfield. He established himself as one of the top defensive midfielders in the world and has only improved since the move to London.

Jokes and memes like this have become a regular thing, via Dream Team:

More often than not, players such as Kante are overshadowed by forwards and creative midfielders, who score a lot more goals. But even team-mate Hazard, the other favourite for this year's award, thought the midfielder deserved to win, per John Cross of the Daily Mirror:

"

Ngolo deserves it. Not only for this season but for his two seasons together in the Premier League. He is my favourite and I hope he gets it because that would be something for a player who do not always score and decide the matches.

He is decisive but in a different way. And that would be good for football.

If I get it, I will invite Ngolo to come to me with the stage. So we can divide him with two.

"

Kante is the first defensive specialist to win the award since John Terry in the 2004-05 season, and the first Frenchman since Thierry Henry the year before.

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