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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Marc Mayo

Rio Ferdinand stunned by Cristiano Ronaldo snub for Premier League award after Bukayo Saka nominated

Cristiano Ronaldo will consider it “disrespectful” that he was left out of the nominations for the Premier League’s Player of the Season award.

Aftr hitting 18 goals in 30 games for Manchester United, the veteran striker missed out on the shortlist with Bukayo Saka of Arsenal and Southampton’s James Ward-Prowse given the nod instead.

Former teammate Rio Ferdinand gave an insight into how Ronaldo would have reacted to the news, which he deemed “laughable”.

“Saka’s in the in the Player of the Year nominees?" he said on his Vibe with Five YouTube show.

“I wouldn’t have had Saka in there yet, as well as he’s done. I wouldn’t have had him in there ahead of Ronaldo, no, not this season.”

The nominees are chosen by a selection of representatives from the Premier League’s board, fans and media - and Ronaldo won the award in both 2006/07 and 2007/08.

Ferdinand continued: “Wow, who’s voted that? Ronaldo should be in ahead of three of four of those guys. He probably doesn’t win it but in terms of nominees, it’s just laughable.

“He’ll take it as a disrespect but these are the things that fuel him, he’ll be thinking, ‘How dare you?’ And it’s based on stats, he’s like, ‘I’ve banged in more goals than most of them on that list other than Salah, so what are you talking about?’.”

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