Arsenal and Man Utd stars scoop Europa League end of season awards
With the 2019/20 Europa League campaign now done and dusted, and Sevilla claiming the title for the sixth time - now three more than any other side - we recap the tournament overall in our end of season awards.
In this roundup we'll reveal the Player of the Tournament, Young Player of the Tournament, Golden Boot and Glove winners, as well as a brief run through of some of the other key stat leaders.
Player of the Tournament (and Golden Boot winner): Bruno Fernandes
Racking up ten appearances in the competition split equally across the group stage with Sporting CP and knockout phase with Manchester United, Fernandes was a star performer throughout. The Portuguese scored eight goals in total to hold off a late Golden Boot challenge from Romelu Lukaku, albeit benefitting from five penalty kicks to mount that tally.
The midfielder attempted the most shots in the tournament, with 48, and registered four assists - a tally bettered only by two other players - from a haul of 25 key passes, which was enough to rank second. Whilst earning a stronger rating with his former club (8.40) than his current one (7.70), an average across the tournament of 8.05 was again enough to outscore that man Lukaku.
Young Player of the Tournament: Bukayo Saka
It's fair to say it was a breakthrough season for the Arsenal teenager, who put in a number of his brightest displays for the Gunners in the Europa League. His finest came way back in September against strong opposition in Eintracht Frankfurt, stealing the show with a goal and two assists to earn his first of three man of the match ratings from just six appearances.
The versatile 18-year-old would take his respective tallies for goals and assists to two and five, with the latter a joint tournament high made all the more impressive when considering Arsenal crashed out in the round of 32. With tallies of 11 shots, 14 key passes and 13 dribbles, his superb rating of 7.68 was enough to beat formiddable opposition for the Young Player of the Tournament gong from the likes of Kai Havertz and Nicolo Zaniolo.
Golden Glove: Sergio Romero
The customary cup goalkeeper for Manchester United, Romero's superb record for clean sheets when called upon held up in this season's Europa League as the Argentine international kept seven from his ten appearances. He will have been bitterly disappointed to have been dropped for the semi-final against Sevilla as a result, and while David de Gea could do little with the two goals, it wasn't a selection that paid off for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Stat Leader round-up
We know that Fernandes scored the most goals from the most shots, Romero kept the most clean sheets and Saka registered the most assists - albeit tied with another United player in Juan Mata - but who else topped key statistical metrics over the course of the tournament?
In terms of chance creation, Eintracht Frankurt winger Filip Kostic was streaks ahead on 38 despite a round of 16 exit, while there was no surprise when it came to the strongest dribbler. Adama Traore is so accustomed to leading such lists and once again, his closest challenger wasn't even close, with Porto's Corona 18 back on the Wolves winger's tally of 47. From ten appearances, that's even relatively modest by his standards!
Elsewhere hat-tips are owed to winning finalist Nemanja Gudelj, who completed a tournament high of 95.9 per cent of his passes, while centre-back Philipp Wiesinger produced the most interceptions for surprise package LASK.
Meanwhile, another 'overperformer' in FC Copenhagen owed much of their impressive progression to the quarter-finals to the defensive work of captain Zeca, who produced a whopping 45 tackles, and the heroics of goalkeeper Karl-Johan Johnsson, who made the most saves, with 13 of 38 saves coming in a truly stunning display against Manchester United.
