Crysencio Summerville wins prestigious PFA award and joins Leeds United trio in Championship Team of the Year
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Crysencio Summerville was among four of last season’s Leeds United stars to be named in the PFA Championship Team of the Year on Tuesday evening, with the Dutchman also crowned Championship Player of the Year.
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Hide AdSummerville pipped five of the second-tier’s most exciting players to claim the prestigious award in Manchester, including former Leeds teammate and fellow summer exit Georginio Rutter. Also on the list were Ipswich Town’s Leif Davis, Adam Armstrong of Southampton, former Leicester City man Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Sammie Szmodics - who recently swapped Blackburn Rovers for Ipswich.
The 22-year-old was crowned by his peers, with the voting cast by members of the Players’ Football Association, after an outstanding campaign in which he registered 20 goals and nine assists in the Championship. But the winger was unable to lead his team to promotion and earlier this month joined West Ham United, who activated his £25million-plus release clause.
Unsurprisingly, Summerville was also named in the Championship Team of the Year alongside every Player of the Year nominee except Rutter. Leeds were the best represented team in the setup by some margin, with a total of four Whites stars from last season.
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Hide AdArchie Gray was included in a midfield trio alongside Dewsbury-Hall and former Norwich City man Gabriel Sara, despite spending much of the campaign at right-back. The teenager only made his first-team debut on the opening day of last season but went on to become ever-present in Daniel Farke’s side, eventually earning a move to Tottenham Hotspur after they activated his £40m release clause at the end of June.
Leeds can boast two current players in the team as well, and a pair who are widely expected to feature in the upcoming promotion push. Illan Meslier shared the Championship Golden Glove with West Bromwich Albion’s Alex Palmer after keeping an impressive 18 clean sheets. The 24-year-old pulled off some incredible saves to earn that record, most memorably to deny Dewsbury-Hall a late equaliser in the 1-0 win at Leicester in November.
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Hide AdAnd Meslier has a familiar face in front of him, with Ethan Ampadu picked as one of the two central defenders alongside Leicester City’s Jannik Vestergaard. Welsh international Ampadu dropped into defence following Pascal Struijk’s Boxing Day injury and never looked back, forming a solid partnership with countryman Joe Rodon and donning the armband with such comfort that he was named permanent club captain earlier this summer.
Of the 11 players named in the Team of the Year, only Meslier and Ampadu remain in the Championship with all others either promoted with their team or moving on this summer. The pair will hope to be in and around it again next year, only this time as Premier League players with Leeds.
Team of the Year in full: Meslier; Walker-Peters, Vestergaard, Ampadu, Davis; Dewsbury-Hall, Sara, Gray; Armstrong, Szmodics, Summerville