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The Premier League Player of the Month is the award provided by the Football Association (FA) to appreciate the best Premier League player for each month of the season. The candidate to receive the award is judged by a panel convened by the Premier League's sponsor and announced on the first Friday of the subsequent month. The Panel has former Premier League managers, former players along with few representatives from the sponsors.
Premier League legends like Didier Drogba, Patrick Vieira, Peter Schmeichel never got a chance to win this award throughout their Premier League career. This slide-show talks about the five active Premier League stars who surprisingly haven't won the award yet.
To provide justice to the article, we have only considered players who have completed a minimum of two years in the Premier League.
#5 Mesut Ozil
This is just the beginning of the incredible list of Premier League stars who have never won the 'Player of the Month' award. Ozil, the pass-master of Arsenal, joined the North London side in a club-record contract worth £42.5 million during the 2013-14 season.
Ozil was an instant success in Arsenal. His vision and sublime passing helped Arsenal to dominate the attacking third. In the 2013-14 season, Ozil was nominated for Fifa Ballon d'Or award. He was also featured on UEFA team of the year and was named in Premier League teams of the season multiple times.
The former Real Madrid playmaker had ended the 2014-15 season with 19 assists, six more than the 2nd placed Tottenham's Eriksen. Ending as the lead assist provider meant Ozil created an unprecedented hat-trick which was never achieved in the football history. He is the only footballer to have recorded the most assists for a season in the German League, Spanish League and the Premier League.
Ozil has an impressive Premier League record. He has played 101 games in PL scoring 21 goals and providing 38 assists. Despite these conspicuous records from his 34-month tenure in PL so far, he couldn't win even one Player of the Month award.
#4 Kevin De Bruyne
De Bruyne is one of the best midfielders in the world of football at the moment. If he continues his current run of form, he will certainly challenge Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for 2018 Ballon d'Or award. He is frequently portrayed as one of the greatest modern-day attacking midfielders due to his technique, speed, passing range, and powerful shooting abilities.
The Belgian midfielder has scored 7 goals and provided 11 assists in City's 18 Premier League games this season. In this rate, he will certainly beat Fabregas' and Ozil's joint assist record of 19. However, he is unlucky to miss out on the Player of the Month award in the first four months of this season.
He is not just a one-season phenomenon as he topped the assist makers table with 18 assists last season too. The shocking fact is that he claimed nine Man-of-the-Match awards from his 33 starts. Despite all these exploits, he couldn't win one Player of the Month award.
Most probably, the Genk academy product will win this award this season due to his supreme form.
#3 Philippe Coutinho
Nicknamed as 'The Little Magician' by the Liverpool fans and teammates, Philippe Coutinho is one of the most gifted and versatile midfielders in the world. Football legend Pele, in an interview, said Coutinho has a "great future" ahead. Rightly so, Barcelona is trying to seize this prized asset at a young age of 25. The Catalans are looking forward to replacing Andreas Iniesta with him. He was also featured in 2015 PFA Team of the Year.
Despite his successful stint with Liverpool, to everyone's surprise, Coutinho hasn't won a single Player of the Month award. While his attacking partners Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah were lucky to get into this list, Coutinho is still luckless to win the award.
He has represented Liverpool for 134 times in the Premier League games scoring 39 goals and providing 34 assists. He is into the sixth season of the Premier League and may never win this award if he moves to Barcelona in this winter transfer window.
How couldn't a consistent performer like Coutinho win this award not even once in his career?
#2 Alexis Sanchez
Alexis Sanchez is one of the best footballers in the world now. Sanchez's move to Arsenal has worked wonders after his not-so-exciting career at Barcelona. Sanchez instantly set himself as the linchpin of the Arsenal team with his scintillating performances.
He has gained so many laurels as an Arsenal player. In 2015, he was chosen as PFA Fans' Player of the Year. In the last season, the Chile International played all the 38 Premier League games scoring 24 goals and providing 10 assists thereby making the 2016-17 season as his best year as a professional footballer. He single-handedly won many games for Arsenal in the past four seasons.
He was rightly awarded as Arsenal's Player of the season. Sanchez was one of the six stars on the shortlist for the PFA Player of the Year award. Despite having a successful stint at Arsenal, he did not win a single Player of the Month award.
Sanchez form has deserted him this season. He has struggled to replicate his last season's form. He will be hoping to get his form back to help Arsenal qualify for the Champions League. While trying to achieve that milestone, will he get a Player of the Month award?
#1 N'Golo Kante
The most unexpected name to appear in this list is N'Golo Kante's. Kante hasn't won a single 'Player of the Month' award despite being instrumental in helping Leicester City and Chelsea win the 2015-16 and 2016-17 Premier League respectively!
The most ironical fact is that he was bestowed with the 'Player of the Season' award without winning the Player of the Month award even once in the 2016-17 season.
Kante was the linchpin in Leicester's fairy tale Premier League triumph in the 2015-16 season. Kante had accomplished 175 tackles (31 more than any PL player) and 157 interceptions (15 more than any PL player) in that season. He was named in PFA Team of the year.
Kante continued his golden run with Chelsea after a £32 million transfer. He helped Conte's men to the win the Premier League title with utter dominance. Rightly so, Kante won the Player of the Season award for his stunning display.
Despite his incredible performance in the last two seasons, he couldn't win one 'Player of the month' award. Fans must be wondering how on earth Kante hasn't gotten the award yet.
