Bukayo Saka was today named Arsenal’s best player for 2022. Saka pulled 58% of the total votes cast and was crowned the winner. Saka has now won the award back to back, last year and this year becoming the first Arsenal player to win the Player of the Season award in such manner since Thierry Henry in 2004. The young star was Arsenal’s top scorer this season, scoring 12 goals and providing seven assists in all competitions.
Saka, 20, who is heavily linked to Manchester City this week, has been promising and terrifying for Arsenal since being promoted from the academy in 2017.
Saka along with Trent Alexander Arnold were the only players to be nominated for Premier League player of the season and Young player of the year. He lost both awards to City pair Kelvin De Bruyne and Philip Foden.
The Arsenal winger who has let go of his horrendous penalty miss during the Euros final last year against Italy says Wembley is his favourite stadium.
“Wembley is probably my favourite stadium,” he admits. “If I remember correctly, my England debut was behind closed doors, but it was still special because I grew up near Wembley and I always used to see it from the car driving past, so to make my debut for my country there was wonderful.”
Saka took part in the Southgate team that narrowly drew to Germany last night during their second group stage game.
When asked about his best game as a football fan, Saka mentioned the UCL encounter between Barcelona and PSG at Camp Nou.
“This was when Barcelona, trailing PSG 4-0 after a first-leg thumping in France, completed the unlikeliest of comebacks to win 6-1 on the night, despite still trailing 5-3 on aggregate in the 88th minute. Two goals in three minutes from Neymar and a 96th minute winner from Sergi Roberto created Champions League history.
“That’s probably my favourite game ever as a football fan – a fan of the game, rather than a club – because it was a really entertaining game and such a wonderful comeback,” Bukayo added.
