Rise of a Football God-Chapter 289: PFA Awards ceremony
It was a rare holiday period for professional football players, the perfect time to rest, relax, and recover from the stress of a grueling 38-matchday football campaign.
The season was scheduled to start again on 16th August, 2025.
Time moved fast…
While the outside world kept on running, Emile Smith Rowe spent over a month in Nigeria with his friend and his family before finally returning to England to start preparations for the new season.
Sam stayed for 2 more weeks in Nigeria before finally making the trip to Spain, Barcelona with his dad who also dubbed as his agent.
With his dad accompanying him, Sam quickly completed his medicals with the Catalan club and on his birthday, August 6th, FC Barcelona finally presented their newest star to their fans in a packed Spotify Camp Nou stadium.
By now, every FC Barcelona fan already learned about their new signing, Sam.
To most of them, Sam was a literal superhero.
Watching his highlights on YouTube never failed to fascinate them, the boy was just too good. And anytime that they heard of and discussed his achievements, they always had goosebumps, Samuel Moses was that good.
And he was not just good, he had the Black Mamba mentality.
The boy was a winner!
Long before the unveiling, they were all already hyped, anticipating the day when Samuel Moses would finally be presented to the Spotify Camp Nou stadium.
After a long period of renovation, the real Spotify Camp Nou was finally back.
Sam’s unveiling before the fans was done in the real Spotify Camp Now.
With a capacity of 105,000 now, it further solidified its status as the biggest stadium in all of Europe. And Sam’s unveiling was done in a packed Spotify Camp Nou stadium.
After doing the customary ball juggling, displaying his perfect control and mastery of the ball to the cheers of the fans, Sam finally addressed them.
He was all smiles. "Por favor perdona mi ingles". He grinned as he spoke the Spanish that he managed to learn in his little time, begging the fans to excuse his English for the time being.
"My Spanish is not too strong yet, but I promise to learn soon". He laughed.
His smile widened as he faced the fans. "This moment, facing you guys, everything, it’s a moment that I’ve lived in my dreams countless times before now".
"To finally live it in reality, its literally the best moment of my life!"
He touched his jersey, grabbing the FC Barcelona badge. "I vow to give my life for this club!" He grinned again.
"I’ll give my all to strive towards our collective goals!"
"We shall hit the height of glory again!"
In that moment, with a big smile on his face, Sam finally said it. "Visca Barca!"
"Visca Catalunya!"
BOOM!
The 105k+ fans in the Spotify Camp Nou erupted, bringing the Sam chants to this iconic stadium even as they sang his name at the top of their lungs.
Just like that, Sam was introduced to Spain.
But before playing his first game on an FC Barcelona jersey, Sam went on a trip back to England to attend an important ceremony in English football, the 52nd edition of the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) that was held at the Manchester Opera House in England.
Sam attended the PFA Awards’ Ceremony alongside other iconic names of English football, it was the annual award ceremony of the English premier league.
After Fulham’s iconic 2024/2025 season, a lot of their players, old and new came for the award ceremony as they proudly represented the West London club.
In the ceremony, Sam got to reunite with his old teammates.
In the big gala ceremony that had a lot of importance in England, Sam enjoyed himself in the high-end atmosphere as the awards started being handed out to the deserving players.
(PFA Players’ Young Player of the Year (Male): Amad Diallo)
…
(PFA Players’ Player of the Year (Male): Samuel Moses)
Despite the fact that Manchester United concluded the season in lukewarm fashion, it took nothing away from Amad Diallo’s clutch performances for the Red Devils through the season as it secured him his first PFA award.
Amad Diallo climbed the podium with a big smile on his face to claim the award, it was the recipient of the main award though that turned heads.
A lot of people present today already knew who won the award but still, when his name was called, there was a deathly silence before a loud round of applause as Sam rose up to collect the individual award.
Taking the award, he could not control his emotions as they cascaded.
He chuckled, smiling amid tears.
In the end, he said only a single sentence. "It’s an honor".
With that, despite spending only 1 and half seasons in the English premier league, Sam managed to engrave his name in English footballing folklore with this win. He was a premier league legend.
A lot of the big players present congratulated him on his win, including his teammates, and then his ex-coach.
Sam hugged his coach. "I’ll miss you coach".
Coach Marco Silva snapped. "If you truly missed me, you’d have stayed put!"
"But coach…"
Seeing how flustered he was, Coach Marco Silva chuckled. "Just joking".
Sam laughed. "Phew…, you almost got me there".
And then, the team of the year was also announced.
(PFA Team of the Year:)
(Goalkeeper: Alisson Becker)
(Defender: Antonee Robinson)
(Defender: William Saliba)
(Defender: Virgil Van Dijk)
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(Defender: Trent Alexander-Arnold)
(Midfielder: Samuel Moses)
(Midfielder: Emile Smith Rowe)
(Midfielder: Alexis Mac Alister)
(Forward: Alex Iwobi)
(Forward: Mohamed Salah)
(Forward: Raul Jimenez)
5 Fulham players made the list!
Bernd Leno missed the list by just a tiny fragment due to Alisson Becker’s clutch comeback performances towards the end of the season.
Despite Bernd Leno’s exclusion, this was another record-breaking moment in the history of the West London club. Fulham fans were going through the best period of their club’s history.
With that, the PFA award ceremony in England finally came to an end.
Apart from the PFA award, the other awards of the English premier league were already announced earlier as soon as the season came to an end.
***
(Premier league player of the season: Samuel Moses)
(Premier league young player of the season: Amad Diallo)
(Premier league save of the season: Emiliano Martinez)
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(Premier league playmaker of the season: Samuel Moses)
(Premier league manager of the season: Marco Silva)
(Premier league golden glove: Alisson Becker)
(Premier league golden boot: Mohamed Salah)
***
While Sam scooped most of the individual awards in the English premier league from Mohamed Salah, the Egyptian King literally did a clean sweep of the champions league awards, cementing his legendary season.
The 2024/2025 season was an unforgettable one.
