The PFA Player of the Year award was broken; that doesn't make sense. To qualify, you must be only 21 years old or not at the start of the season, which is why the famous names of Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer have gone in recent years. Meanwhile, young players in the Premier League season were more generous and allowed anyone under the age of 23 to participate, when a 22-year-old Erling Haaland brought him home in 2022-23.
Granted, we have made progress since 2010, when 24-year-old James Milner handed the PFA trophy behind his seventh season in the UK football game, but there is still a job to accurately reflect the football player's career earlier than ever.
By the age of 21 or 23, this generation of stars often play hundreds of games and compete in large competitions. The spirit of the Player of the Year Award is to congratulate those who have just made their way. So, in honor of this, we borrowed it from the NBA and reworked it as a rookie.
To qualify, players must start this season, a teenage season (August 16, 2024, age 19 or future) and are participating in their first Premier League. Some of the people in this ranking are graduates of the academy who have entered the first team, while others have arrived from different clubs and have already made timelines for previous experience.
First, despite the age limit, which players are not included. Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United), Lewis Hall (Newcastle United), Rico Lewis (Manchester City), Jack Hinshelwood (Brighton & Hove Albion) and Facundo Buonanotte (Leicester City), all entered their second or third Premier League seasons and were therefore not qualified.
Meanwhile, Mateus Fernandes (Southampton) and Yankuba Minteh (Brighton) turn 20 in July, which only ruled out their scramble. Both enjoy strong personal campaigns on different aspects of the tabletop, and if born in a few weeks, they will be in the top ten.
As 35-year-old Aaron Cresswell's career was in a woe, Emerson struggled to keep the form, and the left back showed up with an opening ceremony, and Scars fell into trouble first. He closed the game in 600 minutes and was impressed occasionally, with his outstanding performance at the Amirates Stadium, where he had a total of four tackles and seven interceptions in a 1-0 victory over Arsenal at West Ham.
Dorgu signed a bad team and bad situation from LECCE in January for £25m. Given his lack of experience, it can easily swallow his overall body, but he does a great job of being able to stand out as a promising player in the future. The Danish International has the kind of physical attributes that the Red Devils teammates are very lacking for most of the season, and he does fly in the club's UEFA Europa League.
Yoro signed a €62 million summer signing from Lille, and featured on this list is that the fact that he managed to add nearly 2,000 minutes, if not for the first half of the campaign, despite the loss in the preseason was actually impressive. His ability to win duels, from behind and cover big space has already stood out, and United manager Ruben Amorim will quietly believe he has a central defender for now and future.
After the frustrating table on the table, their championship pace was poor, and they won only two of the 10 league matches (and lost six in November and December), Manchester City browsed their season to the January transfer window, with a premium of over £150 million on four players (Omar Marmoush, Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov), Vitor Reis and Vitor Reis and Vitor Reis and Nico González- to improve Squared. But Oscar graduate O'Reilly has as much influence as anyone in these big currencies and stands out in the left-back game. The balance he provides, coupled with the speed, directness and natural width he provides in the offense, puts the team into the FA Cup final and appears to be in the top five in the Premier League.
Gray started the season with the most experienced young player on this roster so far, where he started the playoff final defeat. We've already thought about "head start" when compiling rankings because of the large amount of experience, although his experience with the Spurs at No. 17 isn't ready for him.
In the ever-changing XI, the £40 million teenager had to fly between three different positions (right back, centre back and midfielder) and spent the most time in the most familiar characters in the middle of the defense. Gray was very impressed by what he had thrown to him, but obviously some games were struggling in it, so he didn't make the top five.
The emergence of Dibling is a topic of Premier League before Christmas. And, when he dropped to an inevitable relegation with Southampton, he still left a big impression. You can't help sitting up and notice when you see a young player passing by several attempted tackles fearlessly, lifting his team up on the court.
Among qualified rookies, Dibling took the league lead with an average of 7.8, while running 10 meters or higher is also ranked second (100). His name is only two goals, maybe he can show more of the final product, but when you consider that he is playing for one of the worst teams ever in the Premier League, it's clear that he's already out of this semester. Sources told ESPN that if United wins the Europa League, Manchester United will move for him in the summer.
Since 2022, Nwaneri has become the youngest Premier League player ever to be 15 years and 181 days. Wisely, though, manager Mikel Arteta has kept us waiting for a few years to see more of the 18-year-old, who eventually released him this season as he scored nine goals and laid his own contribution to two assists.
Although usually a midfielder, Nwaneri was summoned to serve on the right wing in the case of Saka's long-term injury, which gave him plenty of opportunities to showcase his favorite type of strike: tied from a distance, reaching from a distance, cutting it into the left foot. His news resistance, strength and natural aggression may lead to future play in the midfield, and when Saka returns, his influence is reduced, but his influence is indeed strong, most notably against Leicester and PSV Eindhoven.
Like his teammate Grey, Bergvall gained extensive experience before moving to the Spurs, moving to London in the summer before playing 47 times at UEFA semi-finalist Djurgården. Manager Ange Postecoglou slowed down against Swedish International and waited until January to truly believe him in XI, but in the following four months, Bergvall made himself an important part of the team. The 19-year-old’s energy and make-up blend has impressed many and despite this it’s tough, he has had an excellent first campaign in England.
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Dark: Lewis Skelly may be England's left-back for ten years
Ian Darke explains why Arsenal's Myles Lewis-Skelly has put up a list of top Premier League players this season and predicts that the young star's future will be more obvious.
If you ask Arsenal fans in August that they are most likely to be the rookie of the year, the overwhelming reply would have been Nwaneri (which is correct). This helps see how incredible Lewis-Skelly’s leap is, from the wing of the team to a regular starter at the 18-year-old.
Lewis-Skelly started out as a midfielder at the Gunners Academy, who had struggled with many established names - including Oleksandr Zinchenko, Kieran Tierney and £37 million signing Riccardo Calafiori - played 2,000 minutes at the left back this season. He started against Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League quarter-finals and semi-finals, scoring advanced games for England in the same match while playing a complex role involving him falling into the midfield. Not many players can accept so many players so quickly in such stages and prosperity.
Bournemouth quietly became one of the smartest operators in the Premier League in the transfer market, and Huijsen was the ultimate proof. The teenager flashed huge potential in the Roma's short loan in the second half of last season, having had the opportunity to kick him out of his parents' club from Juventus, Cherry quickly took action and snapped him up for £15m.
Bournemouth coach Andoni Iraola gave him time to adapt to life in England until December when he called on him to get injured with Marcos Senesi Thrust Huijsen and entered the starting XI with Illia Zabarnyi, he showed why he was so highly regarded. He is already slim, tall, liquid and strong in the ground duel, and he is already one of the best guys he has pushed from behind, ranking 93rd in the 87th percentile of the top five progressive attacks and progress passes. Over the next few years, he could improve in the air, but his two feet could also allow him to play and others could only dream.
Born in the Netherlands, Huijsen turned to Spain and made his senior debut in March 2025 to the country where he was born. He has grown from an interesting prospect to £50 million for many top clubs throughout the season (Real Madrid is a keen man, sources told ESPN). It feels like the definition of a rookie of the year.