Ligue 1

Ibra Voted Ligue 1 Best Player

Ibra-PSGParis St-Germain striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic was named the Ligue 1 Player of the Year as the Swede and his team-mates dominated the awards.

“I came to a new country. It was not an easy situation, but everything went well. We worked hard. Now is the time to enjoy it,” said the former Barcelona forward.

Ibra has been brilliant this season and with one game left in the season, away at Lorient this Sunday, his is currently one goal behind the French all-time record for a season of 30 goals, set by Jean-Pierre Papin while playing for Marseille in 1989-90.

Ibrahimovic joined PSG from AC Milan last summer for a reported £15.7m. and he has now won an amazing 8 league titles in Italy, Spain and France, with a further two stripped because of a match-fixing scandal with Juventus.

Ibrahimovic’s goals helped him edge out colleagues Thiago Silva and Blaise Matuidi, as well as the league’s second top scorer, St Etienne’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, for the lead players’ prize when it was announced on Sunday.

Ancelotti shared the best coach honour with Christophe Galtier after the 46-year-old ended St Etienne’s three-decade long wait for silverware with victory in the Coupe de la Ligue.

PSG’s Italy international defensive midfielder Marco Verratti was beaten to the young player gong by Bastia’s attacking midfielder Florian Thauvin.

Team of the Year: Salvatore Sirigu (PSG); Christophe Jallet (PSG), Thiago Silva (PSG), Nicolas Nkoulou (Marseille), Maxwell (PSG); Dimitri Payet (Lille), Marco Verratti (PSG), Blaise Matuidi (PSG), Mathieu Valbuena (Marseille); Zlatan Ibrahimovic (PSG), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Saint-Etienne)