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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Guardian sport

‘I don’t know why I got the trophy’: football’s unusual player-of-the-match awards

Zinedine Zidane for France v Denmark in 2002, Yann Sommer for Inter v Barcelona in 2025, Pavel Nedved for Czech Republic v Netherlands in 2000, Alexandra Popp for Germany v South Korea in 2023, Kai Havertz for Germany v Costa Rica in 2022.
(Clockwise from top left) Zinedine Zidane for France v Denmark in 2002, Yann Sommer for Inter v Barcelona in 2025, Pavel Nedved for Czech Republic v Netherlands in 2000, Alexandra Popp for Germany v South Korea in 2023, Kai Havertz for Germany v Costa Rica in 2022. Composite: Getty, Reuters

“The Inter keeper Yann Sommer was named player of the match against Barcelona despite conceding three goals. He made some great saves so it wasn’t undeserved, but I wondered if there were other unusual PotM awards,” says John Barrow.

This season’s Champions League tie between Real Madrid and Atlético will be remembered for Julián Alvarez’s two-touch penalty being ruled out. Before that Alvarez had inspired Atlético to a 1-0 victory on the night that took the tie to a penalty shootout; he was Uefa’s player of the match. Nick Berry could have written a song about it.

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