Fixing the 2023 Trophées UNFP

Because the results were a travesty…

I fully recognize that this is a very niche topic. This probably does not resonate with many who are reading this. But when some nonsense happens, someone has to be there to say something about it.

The Union Nationale des Footballeurs Professionels hosts the end of season awards for French football every year. For those who follow the Premier League closely, this is very similar to the PFA Awards held at the end of every season in England. In this show, named the Trophées UNFP du football, the UNFP hands out awards recognizing the best performers from Ligue 1, Ligue 2, the women’s top flight (D1 Arkema), and other awards and honors for those within the French football community. It is normally entertaining, well-produced, and a good excuse to put Thierry Henry in front of a camera and microphone more than he already is at the moment.

This year’s awards were equally lovely, featuring great production, good hosts, a lovely tribute to departing Lyon club president Jean-Michel Aulas, and more of Thierry Henry in front of a camera. But the award winners? We have some problems to sort out. As George Costanza’s dad says in the famous “Festivus” episode of Seinfeld, “I got a lot of problems with you people. And now, you’re gonna hear about them.”

As a preface, I do not have an issue with everything that was awarded. Really it is only the Ligue 1 honors. The Ligue 2 winners, honoring Metz forward Georges Mikautadze as the league’s best player and Le Havre’s Arthur Desmas and Luka Elsner winning for best goalkeeper and manager, respectively, were hard to disagree with. I do not have much of an opinion on the D1 Arkema winners due to my knowledge of women’s football not being strong enough to have an educated opinion. And while the standard of officiating in France at least seemed capable and competent relative to some of what we have seen in England and Spain this season, I really do not care enough to comment on the awards given to the referees.

But the rest of the awards? Yes, we have problems here. And I am going to break them down, one by one, and show why some of this is very dumb. But first, the only one that is indisputable:

Ligue 1 Manager of the Season (Trophée du Meilleur Entraîneur de Ligue 1)

Who was nominated: Paulo Fonseca (Lille), Franck Haise (Lens), Igor Tudor (Marseille), Pascal Gastien (Clermont), Philippe Montanier (Toulouse)

Who won: Franck Haise (Lens)

Who should have won: Franck Haise (Lens)

This cannot be argued. It is the only one of these awards that I will discuss where the outcome is and has been crystal clear. Franck Haise is the best manager in France. He has arguably been the best manager in France since Lens’ first season back in the top flight in 2020/21. Christophe Galtier’s phenomenal league-winning run with Lille is the only reason why Haise has not been recognized at this level sooner. His ability to find this level of success with a Lens side that, while at the club and recruitment level is phenomenally ran, is operating at a much lower budget than many of the teams around them is nothing short of extraordinary. He has taken players previously cast away by other clubs, those stuck in lower teams or lower divisions, and a few hopeful young talents and combined them into a formidable side who, had maybe one or two results this season went differently, would have been deserved champions of France over a PSG team with an exponentially higher budget. Haise’s ability to do all of this while creating a more gung-ho and attacking brand of football, very atypical from the standard more conservative mold of French coaches, is what makes him as good as he is. This is not disrespect to the other nominees, especially Gastien and Montanier who should be praised for doing what they did with small clubs this season, but Haise winning is a no-brainer. Should he remain with the Sang et Or, they will certainly be a team to watch next season during their voyage into the Champions League.

Now, we lightly dip our toes into some controversy…

Ligue 1 Best Goalkeeper (Trophée du Meilleur Gardien de Ligue 1)

Who was nominated: Lucas Chevalier (Lille), Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG), Anthony Lopes (Lyon), Pau López (Marseille), Brice Samba (Lens)

Who won: Brice Samba (Lens)

Who should have won: Brice Samba….maybe…

This is an award that I acknowledge the winner of while maybe questioning how not close it seemed. In my eyes there were two main contenders: Samba and Lyon’s Anthony Lopes. This topic actually created quite a bit of discussion leading up to the awards show. Lyon goalkeeper coach Rémy Vercoutre even went so far as to say, when asked about the award following Lopes’ impressive performance in Lyon’s 3-1 win over Monaco in May, that the award should go to Lopes but “the dice are loaded” in favor of Samba. Strong statement, huh? Well, even as a Lyon fan, I think Samba’s win is very merited, and I find it hilarious that Forest told him he was not good enough for the Premier League, sold him, and now he is a France international and one of the best goalkeepers in a Top Five European league. Samba is a great goalkeeper, and Lopes is also a great goalkeeper who has had a great season especially after the World Cup break. The gap between the two is not as wide as public opinion would make you think, and my controversial take here is that it is not quite as clear cut in Samba’s favor as many would think. You can make a strong argument for either of them winning, so while there is discussion to be had, I did not have much of an issue. Brice Samba is a phenomenal player, probably the best goalkeeper in the league, and is more than deserving of this honor.

Moving on to the real controversy now…

Best French Player Playing Abroad (Trophée du Meilleur Joueur Français à l’étranger)

Who was nominated: Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Eduardo Camavinga (Real Madrid), Randal Kolo Muani (Eintracht Frankfurt), Theo Hernández (AC Milan), Mike Maignan (AC Milan)

Who won: Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)

Who should have won: Antoine Griezmann (Atlético Madrid, not nominated)

Aha! A trophy not related to Ligue 1 that was problematic? We have some variety, then.

I get why, production-wise, it works really well for Benzema to win this even with all of the, let’s say controversy, that has followed him over the last year. Lyon’s greatest academy product, who is also a very good footballer, gets the opportunity to win the award and say nice things about the guest of honor for the evening, retiring Lyon President Jean-Michel Aulas. Benzema is also a very good player who has had a pretty good season, albeit with some injuries and other difficulties, so his inclusion as a nominee is not completely wild. But it begs the question of if we really consider this award to be for the most talented French player playing abroad or for the French player playing abroad who has been the best this season. If it is the former, then yes the winner should probably be Benzema despite his difficult season, as he is still the most talented French player playing outside of Ligue 1. If it is the latter, then it should be Antoine Griezmann, and the fact that Griezmann was not even nominated is utterly baffling. Griezmann has arguably been the best player in LaLiga this season, and it would be difficult to think of five other players of any nationality in the world who have been better than him since the end of the World Cup. And that is not even touching on the World Cup, where he was arguably France’s most important player in their run to the Final in Qatar. Griezmann has even almost lapped Benzema in goals in LaLiga this season while amassing significantly more goal involvements (19 goals and three assists for Benzema, 15 goals and 16 assists for Griezmann). He should have been the undisputed winner here, and I cannot think of a single reason why he would not have been nominated for this award, let alone why he should not have won it.

Ligue 1 Young Player of the Season (Trophée du Meilleur Espoir de Ligue 1)

Who was nominated: Nuno Mendes (PSG), Elye Wahi (Montpellier), Rayan Cherki (Lyon), Eliesse Ben Seghir (Monaco), Bradley Barcola (Lyon)

Who won: Nuno Mendes (PSG)

Who should have won: Elye Wahi (Montpellier)

Here we have a similar discussion as the one that we just had with the previous award. Are we giving the award to the best young talent in the league? Or are we giving the award to the best performing young talent in the league over the past season? If it is the former, and we are not considering Kylian Mbappé to be eligible for this anymore, then yes, the most talented young player in the league is Nuno Mendes. He is a spectacular young talent, maybe the best young left back in the world, and he is a golden example of how PSG should be handling recruitment and team construction. Mendes only played a little more than half of the season, however, which really dents his case for this award. His half of a season was pretty good, but it was not stronger than the second half of the season performance of Lyon’s Bradley Barcola. And both of those pale in comparison to the full-season performance of Elye Wahi who, despite only being 20 and only being in the pro ranks for a little less than three years, amassed 19 goals and five assists for a very mediocre Montpellier team. 24 goal involvements this season make him responsible for over a third of Montpellier’s goals this season, and his form is a big reason for their second half of the season turnaround. I am not disputing Mendes’ talent, because he is a superb player. Over the course of the season, though, Wahi was the best young player in Ligue 1.

A special mention should also be given to Reims forward Folarin Balogun, who was also very worthy of nomination for this award.

Ligue 1 Player of the Season (Trophée du Meilleur Joueur de Ligue 1)

Who was nominated: Kylian Mbappé (PSG), Seko Fofana (Lens), Loïs Openda (Lens), Lionel Messi (PSG), Jonathan David (Lille)

Who won: Kylian Mbappé (PSG)

Who should have won: Alexandre Lacazette (Lyon, not nominated)

Yes, I am a Lyon fan. Yes, I am biased. No, I am still right. Hear me out, here.

Yes, Kylian Mbappé is probably still the best player in Ligue 1, as he has been for the last several years. No, this was not remotely close to his level of performance last season, which was maybe the best single season from an individual in the history of the league, but he still had a very strong season and would be a worthy winner of the Player of the Season award. And there have been plenty of legitimate challenges to Mbappé’s claim for this trophy, most notably from Florian Thauvin and Burak Yilmaz, in the past. There has not, however, been a challenge to Mbappé’s reign as worthy as Lacazette this season, and the fact that Lyon’s talismanic striker was not even nominated for Player of the Season despite amassing TWENTY SEVEN LEAGUE GOALS is the second-most absurd thing this dumb award show has ever done, only outdone by the section I discuss after this. Lacazette is more than deserving of this honor, and I do believe that, pound for pound, he has had a more impressive season than Mbappé and should have won this award.

Lacazette’s 32 goal contributions in Ligue 1 make him directly responsible for quite literally almost half of the goals Lyon have scored this season (65 in total). OL did not have another player finish on double digit league goals this season. Their second leading scorer, Brazilian winger Mateus Tetê (on six goals), left the club for Leicester in January. Their third leading scorer, 20-year-old French phenom Bradley Barcola (on only five goals), only played around 100 league minutes in the first half of the season and did not make his first league start until January 29th. 10 of Lacazette’s 27 league goals came against the six teams that finished ahead of Lyon in the league table compared to 8 against the same teams from Mbappé. You cannot convince me that there is a player more important to his team’s success in Ligue 1 this season than Lacazette is to OL, and you cannot convince me that the season that Lacazette has had given the incredible difficulties and, frankly, lack of talent that Lyon have is anything short of spectacular. Sure, the debate with Mbappé is difficult, but I do truly believe that Lacazette should have been player of the season. But to not even nominate him for the honor is laughable, an omission that cannot be remotely justified.

Ligue 1 Team of the Season (l’Equipe-Type de Ligue 1)

Brice Samba (Lens); Achraf Hakimi (PSG), Chancel Mbemba (Marseille), Kevin Danso (Lens), Nuno Mendes (PSG); Seko Fofana (Lens), Valentin Rongier (Marseille), Khephren Thuram (Nice); Kylian Mbappé (PSG), Loïs Openda (Lens), Lionel Messi (PSG)

I thought EA Sports’ Ligue 1 Team of the Season was bad, and then I saw this monstrosity. I will save greater discussion of this for my own Team of the Season, which will release after this, but a few big points to discuss. There are several notable exclusions here.

To cover what I mentioned above about absurd things in this award show, there is genuinely zero reason in my mind as to why Lacazette is not in this team. All bias aside, Lacazette has 27 goals this season. He could have very realistically finished as the league’s top scorer. How in the world is he not in the Team of the Season? And do not get me wrong, I love Loïs Openda as a player. He is great, and his second half of the season especially was outstanding. But if you boil this down to the most simple facts, you will see that Openda has NINE less goal involvements than Lacazette while playing in a better and more talented team. Simply mind-boggling how Lacazette was excluded.

The midfield is a difficult discussion, because Seko Fofana, on his day, is arguably the best player in the league, but it is hard to say that this has been a vintage year for the Paris-born Ivory Coast international. Khephren Thuram has also had a strong season, but inclusion in the Team of the Season might be a step too far. That discussion becomes more complicated when you consider that maybe the two biggest non-Lacazette exclusions in this team are midfielders: Lille’s Remy Cabella and Toulouse’s Branco van den Boomen. Cabella in particular, who finished third in the league in assists, seemed like a guarantee to make the team.

The defense is much easier to agree with, though. While there are several strong choices at center back, the selection of Danso and Mbemba is very hard to argue against. Fullback is much more difficult, though. Both Hakimi and Mendes are very talented, but both missed significant time this season, and Hakimi especially was prone to some inconsistencies in form. And given the competition in those positions, it is very easy to argue against those inclusions.

But what do I know? I am simply an aggrieved fan of the league with a blog. I still love this awards show, it is always an entertaining watch. But man, they got some stuff wrong this season.