Jamie O’Hara has named Arsenal old-boy Emiliano Martinez as his Player of the Year ahead of Manchester City superstar Erling Haaland.
We’re less than two days away from the end of 2023, and a lot has happened this year. Haaland took the Premier League by storm, but O’Hara is adamant that Martinez has had a better year than him.
Jamie O’Hara says World cup winner Emiliano Martinez deserves POTY award ahead of Erling Haaland
There are several candidates for the Player of the Year award, aren’t there?
Erling Haaland is the obvious one having scored a ton of goals in his debut season and helping Manchester City make history by winning the treble.
Declan Rice is also in with a shout having led West Ham United to the UEFA Conference League title and then performing brilliantly for Arsenal since the start of this campaign.
Liverpool stars Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker should also be in contention because of how good they’ve been over the last 12 months
As most of us would, Dean Saunders picked Haaland as his Player of the Year for 2023. O’Hara, on the other hand, surprised everyone by going with Emi Martinez.
He said on talkSPORT: “I’m going to go with Emi Martinez, the goalie at Aston Villa. He’s has an unbelievable year – an unbelievable year!
He’s won everything that you could win, the pinnacle of football he’s won.
“He never makes a mistake. Aston Villa do not realise how good of a goalkeeper (they’ve got). We talk about David Raya, Ederson, Alisson – let me tell you now,
Martinez is one of the best goalkeepers in the world and he never makes a mistake.”
Unai Emery’s Aston Villa are having an amazing season, and Emi Martinez’s brilliance in goal is one of the biggest reasons why.
The goalkeeper, who left Arsenal and joined Villa for £20 million in 2020 (Guardian), has been fantastic since. He helped Argentina win the Copa America as well as the World Cup and is now one of the best goalkeepers in the world.
