Manchester City defender Ruben Dias was named Premier League Player of the Season on Saturday. Dias played a crucial role for City in clinching the Premier League title in the first season itself.

Dias was bought by City for £61.20 million from Benfica ahead of the season. At that time, many have criticized Guardiola for spending huge money on a rookie defender but the exceptional one had all planned in his mind. He has turned out to be a great wall of defense for Manchester City.

He got the better of Kevin De Bruyne, Bruno Fernandes, Jack Grealish, Harry Kane, Mason Mount, Mohamed Salah and Tomas Soucek to claim the award in his debut season.


City were rock-solid at the back with the budding partnership between Stones and new-recruit Dias. Stones, who had a tough time at Manchester in the past couple of seasons have rejuvenated himself as he took full advantage of the opportunities he got when Aymeric Laporte’s suffered injury and missed some crucial games. At the moment, Stones has emerged as the first-choice defender for Guardiola. However, it was Dias who acted as a leader at the back for Citizens.

The Portugal center back became the only fourth defender to win the award after Manchester United’s Nemanja Vidic, former City captain Vincent Kompany and Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk.

Earlier, last month, Diaz was awarded as the Football Writers’ Association men’s Player of the Year.

Pep Guardiola bagged the Premier League Manager of the Season Award as he won his third league title with Manchester City.

Guardiola had a shaky start to the season but in the second half City played dominant football and took a healthy lead over neighbours Manchester United on points table to clinch the league.