Harry Kane was passed over for Premier League Player of the Season and it’s absurd

This morning, the Premier League announced its end-of-the-season awards, and the one person who I thought was a slam dunk to win one... just didn’t.

Harry Kane was NOT named Premier League Player of the Season. Instead, Manchester City’s Ruben Dias got it. Why? Reasons, I guess.

Player of the Season awards are heavily skewed towards offensive players, I get it. If you’re a neutral you might think it’s neat that a defensive player actually took the award home this year. And Dias has been unquestionably outstanding this season. This is in some ways the equivalent of Charles Woodson winning the Heisman.

But over Harry Kane? The guy who scored 23 goals this season, winning the golden boot AND Playmaker of the Season? Kane taking home both awards in the same season is only the third time in Premier League history that it’s ever been done, and the first time since Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink did it in 1999.

This was a historic year for Harry Kane and he was clearly the Player of the Season. It’s bullshit.

Look I get that Kane has burned a lot of his bridges with Spurs fans this spring after basically announcing he wants to be sold to win trophies at another Premier League club. That squandering of goodwill is probably why more Tottenham Hotspur fans aren’t furious with the decision to give the award to Dias.

But I’m furious, and I’m calling it out. Dias is a very good defender, but defense is a team activity. The official release on the Premier League website announcing the award talks about Dias’ clean sheet record, as though he didn’t have three other defenders with him and one of the best keepers in the league helping keep shots out. As impressive as he’s been, it’s not as impressive as scoring the most goals and tallying the most assists in a single season, and I don’t think it’s close.

Congratulations to Ruben Dias. But Harry Kane deserves it more.