Arsenal loanee William Saliba wins Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year award after fine season at Marseille

George Flood16 May 2022

William Saliba has provided a timely reminder to Arsenal of his growing abilities after being named as the Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year.

The centre-back, 21, has excelled during a season-long loan stint at Marseille, an ever-present defensive rock for Jorge Sampaoli’s side after making 51 appearances across all competitions.

Saliba was recognised for his fine efforts across the 2021/22 campaign at the latest Trophées UNFP du football awards on Sunday night, claiming young player honours - an award picked up by Monaco’s Aurélien Tchouaméni last term.

The Gunners defender was in fine company, with Paris Saint-Germain superstar Kylian Mbappe winning Ligue 1 Player of the Year for the third successive season as fervent speculation over his future continues.

Rennes boss Bruno Génésio was named Manager of the Year, while PSG’s Gianluigi Donnarumma was named best goalkeeper and Real Madrid’s evergreen Ballon d’Or favourite Karim Benzema won the prize for best French player abroad.

Marseille have made no secret of their desire to retain the services of Saliba, who is under contract at Arsenal until the summer of 2024.

“In relation to his situation at the club, I hope that there is a possibility for us to retain a player like him, who knows the team,” Sampaoli said last week. “But I don’t know if it depends on OM, William, or Arsenal, I don’t know the possibilities in this case.”

Atletico Madrid and Napoli have also been linked with moves for Saliba, who has said he would be willing to remain at the Stade Velodrome beyond the end of the season.

However, it has been reported that Arsenal plan to take him back to the Emirates Stadium this summer and integrate him into the first-team squad ahead of next season.

Mikel Arteta is dealing with something of a defensive crisis at present in the gruelling race with rivals Tottenham for Champions League qualification, with Rob Holding suspended for tonight’s key Premier League clash with Newcastle and the likes of fellow centre-backs Ben White and Gabriel both injury doubts.

Saliba joined Arsenal from Saint-Étienne aged 18 in a £27million deal back in 2019 and was immediately loaned back to the club, failing to make an impression upon his move to north London before then being sent out to Nice for the second half of the 2020/21 campaign.

William Saliba at Olympique Marseille

Ligue 1 - Olympique de Marseille v OGC Nice
1/8

Saliba has yet to make his first-team debut for Arsenal, but his rise at Marseille has been rewarded with two senior caps for France, earned in March friendlies against South Africa and Ivory Coast.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in