Loading...
Opinion - Editorial Updated: August 10, 2020

Serie-A MVP Award: Why Ciro Immobile Deserves It Over Paulo Dybala, Others By Oladimeji Balogun

By Oladimeji Balogun
August 10, 2020
Loading...

Paulo Dybala was announced as the MVP awardee after the conclusion of the Italian Serie A season which Juventus won to claim the Scudetto for the 9th time in a row, and 36th time in the club history which is the highest in the League history followed by Milan. The MVP award was given to the most important player in the league, which Dybala obviously was not due to several factors.

Oladimeji looks at several other players who could have won it over Dybala and the kind of players who won it across Europe's top 5 leagues.

Ciro Immobile

The winner of the European Golden Boot and the Capocannoniere was overlooked for the award which seems to baffle most Lazio fans across the world but more importantly neutrals who like players to be rewarded for their hard work. The Italian born striker has been through a lot in his career after unsuccessful spells at Spain; Sevilla, Germany; Borussia Dortmund, before returning to Italy.

READ ALSO: Ciro Immobile: First Italian Player To Win European Golden Boot Since 2010

Loading...

He is not a fluke who developed overnight, he developed gradually through the years from Juventus U19 to Genoa, to Torino, and lastly in Lazio. Since he joined Lazio from Sevilla in July 2018 he has scored 125 goals in 178 appearances. His achievement this year put in him the best place to win the MVP award, winning the highest goal scorer in Europe and Italy, overtaking another sensational player; Robert Lewandowski.

He is the first choice and people's choice to have won the MVP award.

Cristiano Ronaldo

The Portuguese player is a world-class footballer winning the Ballon d'Or 5 times, and since he joined the Old Lady he has drew more attention to Serie A, to Juventus. He has been signed with the objective of winning the UEFA Champions League but he has not been able to deliver in that area but that has not stopped him from creating records at the Italian Club. His strike on Friday night in the Champions League made him the all-time highest scorer of Juventus for a single season.

READ ALSO: Juventus vs Lyon: Ronaldo's 2 Record-Breaking Goals Were Not Enough To Save Juventus

Loading...

His 31 goals this season was instrumental to their success in the Serie A. He moved from Real Madrid to Juventus in the summer of 2018, ever since attention has turned to Italian Serie A, Juventus has always been winning the Scudetto for the past 6-7 season now but Ronaldo has made it possible for the past two years at the club especially with the new teams surfacing in Italy like Atalanta, Lazio and new resurrected Inter Milan and A.C Milan.

He was given the MVP award in his first season at the club which seemed more sentimental than merit because Quagliarella was arguably the best player in the league scoring 26 goals and winning the top scorer and pushing Sampdoria to 9th in the League. Another player last season who could have won it ahead of Ronaldo was Duvan Zapata whose 23 goals helped push Atalanta to the UEFA competition for the first time in the club history.

Ronaldo received it because of the attention, performance, and financial implication he brought to Italy and specifically Juventus.

Romelu Lukaku

Loading...

Belgium No. 9 landed in Italy last summer after a disappointing spell at Manchester United which made the English club deem him unfit for the club. He landed firing all cylinders at Internazionale under Conte's management. They could not win the League but they ended the season on a high note with just 1 point behind eventual winners Juventus. Had the season had one more match, they might have won the league. 

READ ALSO: Serie A: Genoa vs Inter; Lukaku's Brace Puts Inter 4 Points Behind Juventus

Lukaku's contribution was 23 goals, his great poaching skills coming handy in most tough matches of the campaign ending them in a draw or a win. That affected them later on because a draw means a loss of 2 points but yet gave them the morale to keep going.

His total goal return is 30 goals and 5 assists in all competition with Inter still in the Europa League quarter-final, thanks to Lukaku's first goal against Getafe in Germany which gave them some comfort early on the match.

His goals might increase as they take on Sevilla in the next leg of the Europa League competition.

Those are lists of possible winners of the MVP award in Italy which was handed to Dybala on a silver platter. Looking at Dybala's contribution in the league

Paulo Dybala

The Juventus No. 10 scored 17 goals and 9 assists in all competition this season. In the league, he scored 11 goals with 6 assists. His goal per game ratio is 0.33 taking him 197 mins to score a goal. The shot on target percentage is 36%. Out of 1391 passes by the Argentine, only 63 were key passes. He did have an 88% pass success rate.

The best of Dybala was back in the 2017/18 season when he scored 26 goals in all competition and provided 6 assists. Again in 2015/2016 when Juventus reached the Champions League final, he scored 23 goals providing 9 assists. He was in pole position to win the MVP those years. He deserved it. Unfortunately, the award started last year when Ronaldo got to the team, he inspired the nomination for the award using calculations from Opta Sports and Netco Sports to determine the best players of a particular Serie A season under the categories of Best Goalkeeper, Best Defender, Best Midfielder, Best Striker, Best Young Player (Under-23), and Most Valuable Player. 

The MVP award is synonymous to PFA Award in England, LFP awards in Spain, Bundesliga Player of the season in Germany, and Ligue 1 player of the year in France.'

The winners of the award in Europe's top 5 leagues would give us a better insight into why this year's award should have been given to another player instead of Dybala.

PFA Award 

The award was last given to  Van Virgil Dijk who helped Liverpool win the Champions League without even winning the league. The criteria in England is by a vote, the winner is chosen by a vote amongst the members of the players' trade union. This year the nominees are Jamie Vardy (Leicester), Trent Arnold Alexander (Liverpool), Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Danny Ings (Southampton), Nick Pope (Burnley), All these individuals nominated has contributed significantly to the success of their team in the league this season

READ ALSO: EPL: Liverpool Become Champions After 30 Years

LFP Awards 

The Winner of the award was Kareem Benzema, He helped Real Madrid overtake Barcelona and win the La Liga trophy. He was given the award due to his significant contribution to the team, he scored 21 goals providing 8 assists.

READ ALSO: Real Madrid Crowned Champions Of Spain For The 34th Time In History

It is right to say with the loss of Cristiano Ronaldo from the team, Benzema has stood up and helped the Los Blancos win the trophy they so desperately need to win for a while now.

He is deserving of the award.

Bundesliga Player of the Year

The winner of this trophy was Robert Lewandowski, the Polish striker has been sensational this season both in the league and in the Champions League. He scored 34 goals in the league. Lewandowski breaks the record for most goals scored in a single Bundesliga season by a non-German player, who has scored 34 goals and made 4 assists in 31 games to be crowned the title.

READ ALSO: Official: Robert Lewandowski Crowned Bundesliga Player Of The Season

He is once again up to 30 in the Bundesliga this season, which represents the third time he has hit that tally with the first coming 2016-17. Only the legendary Gerd Muller, can claim to be able to better that return from Lewandowski, having breached the 30-goal mark on five occasions.

He is deserving of it.

Ligue 1 Player of Season Award

This season was cut short by the coronavirus break and the winner of this year was not announced but the holder of the award is Mbappe who was spectacular last season in Ligue 1. He was the highest scorer and helped PSG win the trophy.

From all comparisons except Opta calculations, The rightful winner for the Serie A MVP award should have been Ciro Immobile.

Join our Telegram platform to get news update
Oladimeji Balogun

Oladimeji Balogun is a graduate of the University of Ilorin where he studied Microbiology, he is a w...

More From this Author
Loading...

0 Comment(s)

Loading...

HEADLINE

TRENDING

See this post in...

QUICK LINKS