Tottenham and England midfielder Dele Alli has won the PFA Young Player prize for the second successive season.
The England midfielder, 21, has again been critical to Spurs' title push and heading into the weekend was the highest-scoring player in the league not recognised as a forward, with 16 goals.
As he reached a half century of Premier League appearances this season, Dele Alli’s 16 goals and 10 assists eclipsed the tallies that England legends Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Paul Scholes had reached at the same stage of their careers.
His manager Mauricio Pochettino, put this down to the fact he is “a special player”. “He has an unbelievable personality and character, and for that he is a great player,” the Spurs boss added.
That personality leads Alli to play on the edge, but it has also given him that fearlessness and belief that have allowed him to emerge as one of the most vaunted young England stars in recent memory.
His lithe, instinctive, occasionally cheeky dribbling, his silky technique and his intelligent passing are undoubtedly the talents that have most caught the eye, but ALli seems to be adding to his game all the time.
The movement and aerial prowess he demonstrated with his two headed goals against Chelsea in January suggest that terrifyingly, there is still plenty more to come from the 21-year-old midfielder.
Alli’s stock has soared since he signed for Spurs in 2015, he is already the reigning PFA Young Player of the Year, back-to-back young player awards which is an achievement only matched by Ryan Giggs, Robbie Fowler and Wayne Rooney.