Paulo Dybala beats Juventus teammate Cristiano Ronaldo to win Serie A Player of the Year Award
Juventus's Paulo Dybala was announced as the Serie A Player of the Year for the 2019-20 season, as the Argentine beat his team-mate, Cristiano Ronaldo, to the award.
Dybala, who scored 11 goals and had 11 assists this season, was named the 'MVP', while Juventus's new signing Dejan Kulusevski was named the Young Player of the Year, after an excellent season for Parma.
Ronaldo might have felt that he was the favourite to defend the award that he won in 2018-19, his first year with Juventus in the Serie A. However, his 31 goals didn't prove to be enough for the adjudicators to judge in his favour.
Dybala, who went through an indifferent 2018-19 season, seemed to have recovered his touch under the stewardship of current Juventus manager Maurizio Sarri.
Both Dybala and Ronaldo were outstanding as Juventus managed to sneak through to a ninth consecutive Serie A title, beating Inter Milan to the Scudetto by a single point in the end.
Ronaldo's 31 goals weren't enough, though, to win him the Capocannoniere, given to the Serie A top scorer. Ciro Immobile took home that award with 36 goals this season, that won him the Golden Boot. Immobile's goals helped Lazio stay close to Juventus for the bulk of the season, but eventually, the Old Lady managed to prevail.
Immobile was named the best forward of the season, while Atalanta's Papu Gomez took home the best midfielder award. Juventus also had another player being recognized as Wojciech Szczesny was named the best goalkeeper in Serie A for the season. Inter Milan's Stefan de Vrij was named the best defender.
Juventus's Dybala and Szczesny are recognized, but not Ronaldo
Ronaldo, who was the inaugural winner of the MVP award last season, would be justified in feeling hard done by at missing out on the award, after another stellar season for Juventus. The 2019/20 season saw him become the fastest player to reach 50 goals in Serie A.
However, Dybala and the Ronaldo have struck up a neat little partnership up front for Sarri's Juventus, and the coach will be looking to the talismanic duo as Juventus's season is still not finished yet.
Juventus take on Lyon at the Allianz Stadium on Friday night, hoping to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the first leg in France, where they were abject.
But both Ronaldo and Dybala have been in great form since the restart post-lockdown. Juventus will look towards them as they look to finalise their date with Manchester City or Real Madrid in the Quarterfinal of the UEFA Champions League.