Mumbai: Atletico Madrid’s striker Antoine Griezmann was named the La Liga player of the year for 2015/16 season on Monday beating superstars like Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi at the Spanish football’s annual awards gala in Valencia. Atletico President Cerezo accepted the trophy on behalf of Griezmann.
“The truth is that he deserves it. Minutes before leaving the airport he received a personal call and he and he had to remain in Madrid and he was very sad because he was really looking forward to be here.” Cerezo said about his team’s offensive threat.
Atletico’s coach Diego Simeone, the architect of the Atletico team won the coach of the season award.
“I wanted to share this with the technical staff, footballers, club and my family.” The Argentine Coach said. “Above all, I want to tell everyone that I am a lucky man.”
Barcelona’s forward Luis Suarez was named the top non-EU player and Barcelona’s Argentinean strike Lionel Messi got the prize for best forward of 2015-2016. Suarez and Messi missed out on the gala.
Atletico’s Goalkeeper Jan Oblak was named the best Goalkeeper after a season which saw him concede only 18 goals of the 3,420 minutes he played, while fellow teammate Deigo Godin was named the Best Defender.
Real Madrid also wasn’t quite left behind as Real Madrid’s midfielder Luka Modric won the Best Midfielder. Real Madrid’s young gun Marco Asensio won the breakout-player award for his performance last season on loan with Espanyol.