Celtic midfielder Benjamin Nygren has been snubbed from the PFA Scotland Player of the Year shortlist. The Swedish Internationalist, who has been Celtic’s top scorer this campaign, has missed out after the shortlist was announced on Monday afternoon. It is the first season since 2012/13 that a Celtic player has not been included on the shortlist for the POTY accolade.
In an update, Hearts duo Lawrence Shankland and Claudio Braga were named on the four-man shortlist with Motherwell pair Elijah Just and Tawanda Maswanhise. The Jambos pair will be in the front running for the award but the standout football has been played by Jens Berthel Askou’s Motherwell.
Celtic have been linked with Maswanhise, who has netted 17 goals in 31 games for the Fir Park outfit. There had been speculation in January that Celtic could launch a bid for the 23-year-old, who came through Leicester City’s Academy but no deal was forthcoming with Celtic adding Tomas Cvancara and Junior Adamu instead.
Celtic have struggled in front of goal this season and save for Nygren’s strikes, Martin O’Neill’s team might find themselves in a more perilous position at this stage. Nygren has scored 20 and assisted 8 times this season in what has been a frustrating campaign for The Hoops. However, the 24-year-old has attracted interest from elsewhere in Europe with a summer move touted for the attacking midfielder. Despite his goals, Nygren has proved himself to be something of an enigma at times, but nevertheless has popped up and netted consistently.
The Motherwell team have earned a number of plaudits for the way that they play and the standout in many ways has been Just. The attacking midfielder has been linked with a move to Celtic this summer and it will be interesting to watch that rumour develop. The New Zealand Internationalist has impressed this campaign at Fir Park alongside Elliot Watt, both of which should be on Celtic’s radar ahead of a big summer rebuild.
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No real surprise that we haven’t got a player nominated within the short list.
Not even clear cut, upon who would be regarded as the player of the season, within our own club at present imo?
Of course Nygren goal scoring record is impressive, but wouldn’t class him as a great all round football player either at present imo?
Even so, he’s still worth far more than we paid for him, so been a very successful signing in that regards.
Wouldn’t be my choice for our own player of the season, but can understand others identifying the importance of his goals contributions this season as a huge factor within such a decision imo?