Six players from FC Porto, four from Sporting (national champion in the 2020/21 season) and one from Benfica: this is how O JOGO readers have identified the best eleven players of the year. FC Porto player Luis Diaz wins personal title
Reaffirming Luis Diaz’s growing value, Diogo Costa’s rise to number one status, even his rivalry with more experienced guardians and the belief that Palchinha is more than a reliable pendulum – these are the highlights in Readers GAME Election concluded the voting for the best players of 2021.
The voting, which took place online and covered the calendar year 2021 (the second half of the 2020/21 season and most of the first round of 2021/22), also awarded Colombian Luis Diaz, FC Porto’s left-handed striker. with the title of the best player of the year, crushing the competition: 67.4% against 11% for Coates (Sporting) and 8.5% for Rafa (Benfica).
As for the top eleven, as far as the farthest position on the pitch, most of the options fell to the blue-white goalkeeper (47.2%), which was the most intense duel of the entire vote, since Diogo Costa beat the team. sportinguista Adán (42.4%) by a very small margin.
With more voices to form a defensive quartet (in the previously defined 4x3x3 pattern), Porro (Sporting), Pepe (FC Porto), Coates (Sporting) and Grimaldo (Benfica) appear. In midfield, in addition to the aforementioned Palhinha, he also notes Vitinho (FC Porto), who rose in the vote with his performances in 2021/22 in a sector that also includes another FC Porto player: Uribe. Leading the way with Luis Diaz are Pedro Gonçalves (Sporting), league I top scorer last season (23 goals), and Taremi (Porto).
Only players who ended the year playing the Bwin League were counted.
A real luxury bank
As O JOGO readers voted for the best year ending yesterday, only the goalkeeper position split opinions (see table above), winning the young white and blue goalkeeper by a narrow margin: 4.8 percent. Almost half voted for Adan, the Spanish goalkeeper for Sporting, who contributed greatly to the national title. The main player of Benfica, the Greek Vlachodimos, was far from immediate, gaining only 8.4%.
The same can be said for the right flank, given unambiguously by Pedro Porro, but with FC Porto player João Mario many points higher than the rest of the rivals, due to the trust placed in him by Sergio Conceição. … Among the central players, Mbemba (Porto) and Otamendi (Benfica) lagged far behind Pepe and Coates.
In the center stood out Mateus Nunez (Sporting) and Sergio Oliveira (FC Porto), although far from the chosen trinity.
Ahead, Otavio (FC Porto) lagged far behind Poté (8.5%) on the right flank, with the biggest difference among all – Luis Diaz with a categorical 92.2%, which negated all competition on the left flank. The second most voted forward was Darwin (Benfica), well ahead of Sarabia (Sporting).
