the times | Tuesday July 21 2020 2GM 63Sport
Huddersfield Town are in talks with
Carlos Corberán, a key member of
Marcelo Bielsa’s backroom staff at
Leeds United, about becoming their
manager (Martin Hardy writes)
The move is a blow for Bielsa, who
is keen for Corberán to remain at
Elland Road after their promotion to
the Premier League.
Huddersfield made the surprise
decision to sack Danny Cowley on
Sunday, two days after he hadrejecting an offer from Manchester
United. If all add-ons are met, his
price will rise to £30 million, making
him the most expensive 17-year-old
in history. He will join his new club
after Birmingham’s final game of
the season against Derby County
tomorrow.
Bellingham has played only one full
season in the Championship, scoring
four goals in 43 appearances, but will
join Dortmund’s first-team squad.the NHS, the Premier League and the PFA. He
was also ringing England fans who work for the
NHS, thanking them, tweeting others and
expressing his appreciation for those cooking
meals for nurses. He scores highly on the
precept and example criterion.
But ultimately, for all the focus on those
qualities, the award must be for contribution
on the field. Henderson’s showreel contains
plenty of evidence underpinning his case: the
long pass to release Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
against Bournemouth; the calm finish against
Southampton, ignoring James Ward-Prowse’s
despairing lunge; the half-volleyed cross-field
pass to Andy Robertson to race on to against
Arsenal; flicking the ball past Nemanja Matic
to Mo Salah against Manchester United;
showing timing and strength to rise above
Wolverhampton Wanderers’ defence to score
from Trent Alexander-Arnold’s corner; and
that pass to Firmino, also against Wolves.
At the end of that game at Molineux in
January, Henderson marched across to the3,000 travelling Liverpool fans
and saluted them, knowing how
much this victory, vanquishing
awkward opponents, meant on
the road to the title. Steven
Gerrard will always be in their
hearts, but there is plenty of
room for Henderson, too. He is
more than a captain, leading by
example. Henderson is a
sergeant-major by nature,
bawling out team-mates, and, in
that Wolves game, ordering
Alexander-Arnold to keep the
shape, to patrol space.
If it sometimes seems with
Liverpool that Gini Wijnaldum is
Jürgen Klopp’s brain on the field,
Henderson his voice. “He was
really shouting at everybody,
keeping everybody on their toes,”
Klopp said at Molineux. “But it’s
not just about shouting, it’s about
what you say and he only asks for
things he expects from himself.”
Demanding, driving the team on
towards the title. “We couldn’t be
in this situation without this type
of character,” Klopp said. Too true.
Henderson will hoist the
Premier League trophy aloft, but
De Bruyne deserves to be
acclaimed as Footballer of the Year.
Why? It’s his nervelessness under
pressure, burying four out of four
penalties, defeating Thibaut
Courtois of Real Madrid, Bernd
Leno of Arsenal, Karl Darlow of
Newcastle United and Alisson of
Liverpool. It’s his versatility, his
sharp footballing mind swiftly
absorbing the varying demands of
Pep Guardiola, willingly playing
deeper, on the right, or starting as a
false 9 against Real Madrid in the
Champions League round-of-16 first
leg, creating City’s equaliser, then
nailing that winning spot-kick at the
Bernabéu, one of the most pivotal,
impressive performances of the season.
It is in his spectacular numbers, not simply
the 11 goals but the 18 assists in 33 Premier
League games, with two games left to eclipse
Thierry Henry’s division record of 20 from
2002-03. It is the gallery of snapshots of De
Bruyne’s technical mastery: the nimble way he
lifts the ball over Giovani Lo Celso’s foot against
Tottenham Hotspur; the strength to break away
from West Ham United’s Declan Rice; the quick
feet to steer the ball past Caglar Soyuncu
against Leicester City; the free kick curled over
the Chelsea wall and into the top corner before
Kepa Arrizabalaga can react; the volley against
Newcastle United; dribbling past Real’s Luka
Modric and racing away from Arsenal’s Mattéo
Guendouzi, supercar against go-kart.
Cross after cross heralds De Bruyne’s gifts
— deliveries on the run, faded around the first
defender, appearing suddenly across goal, too far
from the goalkeeper’s grasp but perfectly judged
for Gabriel Jesus or Sergio Agüero; the passes
teased behind left backs for Riyad Mahrez or
Kyle Walker, or driven down the inside-left for
Sterling. Henderson was exceptional this season,
but De Bruyne raised the game to another level,
which is why he has my vote.Why De Bruyne
pips Henderson as
player of the year
Henry Winter
Chief Football Writer
I
n the season that never seems to end, the
race for Footballer of the Year is finally a
straight sprint between Kevin De Bruyne,
Manchester City’s genius of a ball-player,
probably the most accomplished and
effective midfield player in Europe at present,
and Jordan Henderson, the heartbeat of
Liverpool, who will walk, far from alone,
on to the Kop tomorrow night to lift the
Premier League trophy.
The deadline for voting for Footballer of the
Year arrives at midnight sharp on Thursday,
with the winner announced by the Football
Writers’ Association on Friday. Whoever wins
follows in famous footsteps: Stanley Matthews,
Tom Finney, Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton,
George Best, Kenny Dalglish, John Barnes, Gary
Lineker, Eric Cantona, Thierry Henry, Cristiano
Ronaldo and, most recently, Raheem Sterling.
De Bruyne and Henderson walk among giants.
It’s always uplifting at the awards evening to
see the recipient and his family discreetly
inspecting the names of past winners on the
wall, the pictures of legends framed
prominently, and the celebration of not only
their technique but also their contribution to the
footballing community and to society. This is
where the Footballer of the Year honour
differentiates from the Professional Footballers’
Association’s prestigious Player of the Year; “by
precept and example”, as the voting emphasises,
matters. Being a role model is important.
In assessing the duel for the crown between
De Bruyne and Henderson, it needs recording
that other special talents also command
attention, notably Liverpool’s quicksilver Sadio
Mané, with his 17 goals and nine assists in
33 Premier League appearances, and his
transformative work helping communities in
his native Senegal, and the flying feet and
fulsome heart from Wythenshawe, Marcus
Rashford, with his 17 goals and nine assists in
29 games for Manchester United and his
campaign feeding hundreds of thousands of
schoolchildren, and making short-sighted
politicians see sense.
I know shrewd minds in the media voting for
Mané and Rashford, and respect their judgment,
but it is clearly between De Bruyne and
Henderson, the men for all reasons. It has
almost become a collision of philosophies,
between the purists’ worship of a sublimely
technical Belgian and the lionhearts’ passion
for an Englishman who fought adversity and
criticism, and won through. Amusingly, the
football-writing fraternity and sorority are
frequented castigated for backing their own,despite the fact that only two of the past eight
Footballers of the Year, Sterling and Jamie
Vardy, are English. Cantona, Ronaldo and
Luis Suárez all felt the wrath of local laptops
yet were eventually celebrated.
As always, the debate is far more nuanced
than it may first seem. Henderson is better
technically than frequently credited by
those outside Anfield.
Exhibit A: the clever
disguised pass to Roberto
Firmino to score at
Molineux in January. If
that were De Bruyne, the
Cityrati would pump out
video tributes to such
exquisite execution. If the
feeling is that Henderson
will sweep the emotional
vote, being the realiser of
Liverpool dreams, the man
with the moral compass
who did so much for the
community, locally and
nationally, during the
pandemic, then the breadth
of De Bruyne’s hinterland
also needs recognition.
He was involved heavily
with Henderson in the
#PlayersTogether initiative
during the pandemic, and
although not City’s captain,
De Bruyne proved a powerful
voice in meetings around such charitable
campaigns as well as the morality and logistics
of Project Restart. He’s a leader with strong
views. De Bruyne joined (with Henderson) in
Sterling’s powerful “We are tired” video after the
death of George Floyd. The Belgian has been
involved in many fundraising activities, playing
Fortnite with Dele Alli to generate donations for
Covid-19 relief, as well as supporting the Special
Olympics.
Henderson’s tireless work on
#PlayersTogether to raise funds for “those
fighting for us on the NHS frontline as well
as other important areas of need” was immense.
He fielded so many calls as he liaised with
other footballers that he would have his earbuds
in while out running, taking calls on the hoof
during lockdown. That image is so powerful,
embodying the lungs of Liverpool’s midfield and
heart of the nation’s dressing rooms.
As that ill-informed health secretary Matt
Hancock cravenly questioned footballers’
altruism, Henderson was already working withDortmund say Hey Jude to £30m teenager Bellingham
Borussia Dortmund announced the
signing of Jude Bellingham with a
little help from the Beatles yesterday
after he completed his £30 million-
plus transfer from Birmingham City
(Paul Hirst writes).
Dortmund published a video on
their social media platforms in which
several players — and the 17-year-old
midfielder himself — sang Hey Jude.
Bellingham signed a five-year
contract worth £54,000 a week afterHuddersfield target Bielsa assistant to be new manager
secured the club’s safety in the Sky
Bet Championship with a 2-0 win
over West Bromwich Albion.
The club said at that point that they
were “not seeking applications” for
the position. Talks had already started
with Corberán, the 37-year-old from
Spain, by that point and it is thought
that he told celebrating Leeds players
on Sunday night that it was his
intention to leave the club and take
over at their Yorkshire rivals.‘Not fair’ to award Ballon
d’Or amid coronavirus
There will be no winner of the Ballon
d’Or this year owing to “a lack of
sufficient fair conditions”, the
organisers have announced.
The disruption to the football
season caused by the pandemic
means that “the fairness that prevails
for this honorary title could not be
preserved,” France Football magazine,
which has given the world player of
the year award since 1956, said.3
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impressivepecharitable thHenderson and De Bruyne are
frontrunners for the Football
Writers’ Association prize