How To Bet On The PFA Player Of The Year

• What Is The PFA Player of the Year Award?
• Multiple PFA Player of the Year Award Winners
• How To Bet On The PFA Player of the Year Award
• PFA Player of the Year Betting Summary

The PFA Player of the Year award is one of the most coveted individual honours in European football. If you wish to bet on it, then we hope this guide teaches you all you need to know.

We’ll discuss what the award is, why it’s important, and who’s won it in the past, before we discuss our best betting tips.

Without further ado, let’s start off by discussing what the PFA Player of the Year award is.

What Is The PFA Player of the Year Award?

The PFA Player of the Year award is given by the Professional Footballers’ Association to the player who has been considered to have been the best from that season.

The award has been a mainstay since the 1973/74 season, and is always awarded after the conclusion of the season. John Terry, winner of the 2004/05 award, said the honour was "the ultimate accolade to be voted for by your fellow professionals whom you play against week-in and week-out".

The honour remains highly coveted, and is considered to be an individual milestone in the career of a football player.

Players under the age of 24 are eligible for the PFA Young Player of the Year award, so make sure you factor in the age of your predictions come the end of the season.

Multiple PFA Player of the Year Award Winners

Since its inception in the mid-70s, only a handful of players have won the award more than once: Mark Hughes, Alan Shearer, Thierry Henry, Cristano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Kevin De Bruyne, and Mohamed Salah.

Salah is also one of three winners hailing from outside Europe - the other two being Luis Suarez and Riyad Mahrez.

How To Bet On The PFA Player of the Year Award

Like betting on the Ballon d'Or, the PFA Player of the Year betting is often a specials market offered by sportsbooks. If you’re eager to start betting on the PFA Player of the Year award, here are a few things you should consider:

Follow The Premier League

The simplest, yet most effective PFA Player of the Year award betting tip we can give you is to simply follow the full Premier League season and keep an eye out for who’s delivering elite performances.

Players can start the season in world-class form, only for them to drop off after Christmas. Alternatively, a player can start the season slowly and then find form once the games unfold. What you’re looking for are players who are consistent with their performances from August until May. This will give you an idea about who’s seriously going to challenge for the PFA Player of the Year award.

If you don’t follow the action, you’re unlikely to make a sensible PFA Player of the Year award bet.

Patterns and Predictions

Looking at the past PFA Player of the Year winners will give you a great insight into who the future winners will be and potentially inform your predictions.

If we look at the winners between 2015-16 and 202-/22, we can find a few patterns:

• 2015-16 winner - Riyad Mahrez
• 2016-17 winner - N’Golo Kante
• 2017-18 winner - Mohamed Salah
• 2018-19 winner - Virgil Van Dijk
• 2019-20 winner - Kevin De Bruyne
• 2020-21 winner - Kevin De Bruyne
• 2021-22 winner - Mohamed Salah

Five out of these seven winners played in more attacking areas of the pitch, whereas only two winners (Kante and Van Dijk) were defensively-minded. Much like the Ballon D’Or, attacking players have a much greater chance of winning due to their tendency to grab headlines and smash transfer records.

Only three defenders have won the award in the Premier League Era - John Terry, Virgil Van Dijk, and Nemanja Vidic.

When you’re making your PFA predictions, consider the players with the most overall goal contributions, as the data tells us that they’re far more likely to win.

The Winner Doesn’t Have To Play For The Champions

It may sound strange, but there have been several PFA Player of The Year winners who did not play for the side that lifted the Premier League title.

Mohamed Salah has won the award twice, yet the Egyptian did not win the league title on both occasions. Similarly, Kevin De Bruyne did not pick up a winner’s medal in 2019/20, and neither did Virgil Van Dijk the season before.

It’s rare to see a winner play for a side outside of the top three, however.

When you’re making your predictions, you don’t always have to look at the players who won the league that season. However, it’s unlikely that the winner will play for a club languishing in the middle of the table. The PFA Player of the Year award is given on performance, and even the best players need good teammates.

Repeat Winners Are Rare

Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne have made it seem like serial winners of the PFA Player of the Year award are common, but keep in mind that, before those two, only five players had managed to win two awards over its then-40 year history.

The dominance of Manchester City and Liverpool skewed the awards somewhat, but keep in mind that the Premier League had never seen two teams with so much consistency. If your prediction has won the award before, then remember that the stats tell us they’re unlikely to do it again.

PFA Player of the Year Betting Summary

The PFA Player of the Year award is a highly-coveted individual award given to who fellow professional footballers think has been the best during that season.

In its 45-year history, only seven players have won the award more than once - meaning that serial winners are rare, and the majority of winners will only receive the award once.

To accurately bet on the PFA Player of the Year award, we recommend watching as much Premier League football as you can, as well as remembering how many attack-minded players win, and the fact that the winner does not have to play for the champions.

We hope this guide has taught you a lot more about the PFA Player of the Year award, and you’re now in the position to start making some bets on it.