It has been a remarkable turnaround for Manchester United custodian David de Gea. The Spanish goalkeeper’s future at Old Trafford was pretty uncertain last season but de Gea bounced back convincingly and now he has managed to clinch Manchester United’s Players’ Player of the Year award.
The Spaniard clinched the precious award for the fourth time since his arrival back in 2011 from La Liga outfit Atletico Madrid. So far, De Gea has played 487 matches for the Red Devils in all competitions. His current contract with Manchester United is scheduled to end in 2023.
Previously, he had lifted the award in 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2017-18 seasons.
Apart from De Gea, Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo, English defender Luke Shaw and Ecuadorian defender Antonio Valencia are the only other players to win this special award on multiple occasions. Ronaldo, Shaw and Valencia had claimed the awards two times each.
In the recently concluded season, De Gea did not miss a single minute for the Red Devils as he played in all 38 English Premier League matches and managed to keep eight clean sheets. In January, De Gea won the Premier League’s Player of the Month award to become the first goalkeeper to claim the distinguished monthly prize since February 2016 when Southampton goalkeeper Fraser Forster clinched it.
De Gea might have produced a stellar show in the 2021-22 season but for Manchester United, it has been simply a terrible outing. Ralf Rangnick’s men even failed to qualify for next season’s Champions League after finishing their English Premier League campaign at the sixth spot. With 16 wins and 10 draws, Manchester United bagged 58 points after playing 38 matches.
Manchester United, under their newly-appointed manager Erik ten Hag, are expected to make some big transfer moves in the summer window in order to end their trophy drought.
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