Mahrez and Martial scoop Facebook awards
Football
By
AFP
| May 10, 2016
Leicester City winger Riyad Mahrez and Manchester United forward Anthony Martial landed the top prizes in the 2016 Facebook Football Awards, which were announced on Monday.
Algerian star Mahrez, whose 17 goals and 11 assists inspired Leicester to the Premier League title, won Player of the Year, while France international Martial, 20, was voted Young Player of the Year.
The awards for the 2015-16 English Premier League season were voted on by almost a million Facebook users in 193 countries, according to a press release from the social networking giant.
"It's something special and something big as well, because it's from all over the world," said 25-year-old Mahrez, who was also elected the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) Player of the Year.
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"I thank them and thanks to all of my fans. I love all my fans. I am very happy."
Martial said: "Thanks to all Facebook fans for supporting me as the Young Player of the Year. I am happy to be playing in the Premier League and I hope that I will continue to score plenty more."
Leicester were voted Club of the Year and their manager Claudio Ranieri was named Manager of the Year.
Leicester and second-place Tottenham Hotspur each had three players in the team of the year: Mahrez, Jamie Vardy and Robert Huth for Leicester; Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Toby Alderweireld for Spurs.
Manchester United pair David de Gea and Chris Smalling, Arsenal right-back Hector Bellerin, West Ham United playmaker Dimitri Payet and Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero completed the line-up.