Barcelona Player of the Year: 5 candidates ranked

#4 Jordi Alba

FC Barcelona v FC Internazionale - UEFA Champions League Group B

The Spaniard is one of the best left backs in the world right now and is integral to the way Barcelona plays. Alba has been a permanent fixture on the left side of this Barcelona team and his understanding with Lionel Messi has been highly fruitful for the Catalans.

On the field, Alba is a fast, energetic full-back, who has a fine left foot and a sensible head. Alba does not dive into tackles, instead, he prefers using his speed and positioning to win back the ball. He is very good at intercepting the opposition play and is a handy defender. However, it is when Alba drives forward that his strengths come to the fore.

The Spaniard is a very good passer of the ball, and he has also improved his crossing abilities of late. Alba likes to build up play using short passes and makes intelligent runs which split open the opposition defence.

This season, Alba has 43 appearances for Barcelona and 40 of them have been starts! He has registered 11 assists altogether and has also scored two goals. The Spaniard is another strong contender for the Barcelona Player of the Year award.

About the author

Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over six years at Sportskeeda. He has written close to 9000 articles for the website, and has garnered over 19.5Million reads.

Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.

Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.

Deepungsu has been a Manchester United supporter since the year 2000. Unsurprisingly, his favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson and the Scotsman helped him get through some of the toughest days of his life. Like the fiery Scot, Deepungsu also leaves no stone unturned when it comes to accuracy in articles and only relies on credible sources.

Despite believing in Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland to create an iconic rivalry, Deepungsu reckons no one can match the longevity of Messi and Ronaldo. He spends his leisure time writing about life on his blog, reading books, and playing the guitar.

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Edited by Jong Ching Yee