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PFA Player of the Year: Kevin de Bruyne and Beth England named winners

Kevin de Bruyne and Bethany EnglandImage source, Getty Images
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PFA stands for Professional Footballers' Association

Manchester City's Kevin de Bruyne and Chelsea's Bethany England have won the PFA Player of the Year awards for 2020.

29-year-old Kevin de Bruyne beat Premier League winners Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mane, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jordan Henderson and his teammate Raheem Sterling to win the award, which is voted for by fellow players.

Bethany England, 26, won the women's award after helping Chelsea win the Women's Super League and League Cup double.

She beat Arsenal striker Vivienne Miedema who won the award last season.

Kevin de Bruyne

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De Bruyne is the first Manchester City player to win the award since it was created in the 1973-74 season.

Kevin de Bruyne said winning the award was "a big honour."

"To be voted by your colleagues, competitors from other teams who you always play against on the field. That they vote for you for best player; it's amazing," he said.

It is the third year in a row that the Player of the Year award has been given to a player whose team did not win the Premier League title.

De Bruyne contributed to a record-equalling 20 assists and scored 13 goals as Manchester City finished second in the Premier League to Liverpool.

Bethany England

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Bethany England won several WSL Player of the Month awards last season

Bethany England scored 21 goals in 2019-20 and was named Women's Super League Player of the Season award in July.

"It's a huge honour to be voted for by your peers, so thank you to everyone who voted for me," England said.

"The team cohesion as a group, we fought for everything we had. The girls were tremendous, thankfully we had a great year and hopefully it continues."

She beat her Chelsea team-mates Sophie Ingle, Guro Reiten and Ji So-yun, and Arsenal's Kim Little to win.

Who were the other winners?

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Marcus Rashford said he will continue to do his best to try to help people

21-year-old Trent Alexander-Arnold and Manchester City's 20-year-old forward Lauren Hemp won the Young Player of the Year awards.

Marcus Rashford picked up a PFA merit award, for the work he has done to tackle children's food poverty this year.

Teams of the Year

There is also an award called Team of the Year, given to players from different teams who are seen to be deserving of being named in a team of the best players in the Premier League and WSL.

There are also Team of the Year awards for the Championship, League One and League Two.

The Premier League team of the year is: Nick Pope (Burnley), Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk (both Liverpool), Caglar Soyuncu (Leicester), Andrew Robertson (Liverpool), David Silva (Manchester City), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City), Jamie Vardy (Leicester), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal), Sadio Mane (Liverpool).

The Women's Super League team of the year is: Ann-Katrin Berger, Maren Mjelde (both Chelsea), Leah Williamson (Arsenal), Millie Bright, Magdalena Eriksson (both Chelsea), Caroline Weir (Manchester City), Kim Little (Arsenal), Ji So-yun, Beth England (both Chelsea), Vivianne Miedema (Arsenal), Chloe Kelly (Manchester City).