Welcome to the 2023/24 season awards! The second annual edition of the end-of-season awards begins, like last year, in France with Ligue 1. I won’t waste much more time, let’s hop straight into discussing the standouts.
The Tom Starke Award: Best Goalkeeper
I have defied gods and demons.
The Tom Starke award is held by the hands of LOSC Lille’s Lucas Chevalier!
This award was perhaps the tightest of the lot, with RC Lens’ Brice Samba and OGC Nice’s Marcin Bułlka running the race close in terms of pure shot-stopping while Stade Brestois’ Marco Bizot being less impressive defensively but being by far the most impressive keeper in the league on the ball. Chevalier was the perfect marriage of the two sides of the modern goalkeeper this season, making a litany of great saves to bail out an inconsistent Lille defense while also being the base of the team’s build-up in the early stages. An all-around amazing performance that laid the foundations for his team’s fourth-place finish, Lille’s Angel of Mercy.
The Dante Award: Best Defender
I know you.
For perhaps the only time ever, an award is given to its namesake. OGC Nice’s Dante is the recipient of his own award!
Nice had one of the best defenses in all of Europe, and the man at the heart of it all is treble-winner and Bayern Munich alumnus Dante. While Jean-Clair Todibo had more off-the-ball responsibilities and the full-backs were somewhat reserved, Dante pulled everyone together masterfully at the age of 40 (!!!). Dante was nothing short of insurmountable in defense, with his positioning and communication shoving attackers into disadvantageous situations, but once the ball was won, Dante showed why he was so highly valued by Jupp Heynckes and Pep Guardiola with a passing range reminiscent of the best deep midfielders of his generation. Dante’s ability to win the ball and then immediately ping it with precision the other way allowed his team to eek out victories by the finest of margins time and time again, Nice’s Spirit of Fire.
The Xabi Alonso Award: Best Midfielder
I am your shield, I am your sword.
The Xabi Alonso award was tightly contested too with Manuel Ugarte, Téji Savanier and Vitinha coming close, but it had to be given to Stade Brestois’ Pierre Lees-Melou.
Formerly a box-to-box midfielder now converted into the deepest of a midfield three, Lees-Melou was everything Brest needed. The Frenchman controlled everything for Brest, holding the fort with his positioning being the centre around which the entirety of Brest’s defensive structured revolved, and Lees-Melou’s ability to not only conduct structure but have the ability to know when to break the structure to shut down an attack. Furthermore, Brest’s impatient approach to attacking was almost completely reliant on Lees-Melou this season, with his ability to spread play to the defenders as well as releasing the ball towards the forwards brought both safety and directness, and if no options were available Lees-Melou had the ability to carry the ball forward by himself, possessing amazing dribbling ability both in tight spaces and in open green. The team wouldn’t even have made the top half of the table without him, Brest’s Pillar of Autumn.
The Franck Ribéry Award: Best Attacker
Your past, your future.
There were a few candidates for this award with Romain Del Castillo, Wissam Ben Yedder and Edon Zhegrova being notable players, but none of them can say they were experienced the success of Olympique Marseille’s mid-Renaissance Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
The Gabonese striker writes another chapter in a surprisingly storied career, returning to his birthland and leading Marseille’s attack with renewed vigour after a sober spell at Chelsea. While Aubameyang, now 34, no longer possesses the physical gifts he once did in his prime years, he showcased just why he is one of the most underrated players of his generation with 25 goal contributions this season to drag Marseille by their heels into a respectable eight-place finish. Aubameyang’s instincts as a striker are sharp as ever, combined with the ability to execute those decisions with finesse while in the high speed situations of a counter-attack. Borussia Dortmund’s marksman, Arsenal’s leader and FC Barcelona’s wildcard now becomes Marseille’s Architect of Destruction.
The Willy Sagnol Award: France’s Player of the Year
This is the way the world ends.
With 27 goals and 7 assists, directly contributing to over 40% of the title-winners’ goals, there was simply no other choice for this award than Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappé.
The captain of France, the crown jewel of French football and the long-standing figurehead of the Qatari takeover of Paris. Mbappé leaves PSG after yet another individually successful season, even if he failed to lead the team to their coveted maiden Champions League title. The speed demon has always been PSG’s most productive attacker, but it was doubted whether he could continue to do so after PSG lost both Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr. Mbappé answered the question perfectly, finishing as top scorer. PSG won a league and cup double in their usually regal fashion, and Mbappé was as usual the primary source of Parisian Splendor.
What do you think of our picks? Is there anyone you would have picked instead? Let us know in the discussion below.