AC Milan winger Rafael Leao picked up UEFA’s Player of the Match award for his performance against Newcastle United on Tuesday night but the 24-year-old didn’t feel like he deserved it.
Rafael Leao had some outstanding moments for AC Milan on Tuesday night but he couldn’t find a way beyond Nick Pope in the Newcastle goal.
He found his way through the Newcastle defence no problem in the 34th minute, but instead of stroking the ball home when he had the chance he oddly tried a back-heel and tripped himself up.
Leao didn’t feel he’d earned the MVP accolade
That incident alone was enough for Leao to feel that he didn’t deserve the Player of the Match award bestowed upon him by UEFA.
Leao is obligated to accept the award and be pictured with the statue, but his face in the image on Sempre Milan says it all. Not even a hint of a smile.
The accompanying report notes that Leao felt that being given the award after what he did was more disheartening than the criticism he earned from Fikayo Tomori.
Newcastle’s Nick Pope was surely the Player of the Match
Newcastle fans will likely feel that he was lucky to be awarded Player of the Match anyway given the shift that Nick Pope put in.
The Newcastle goalkeeper found himself in WhoScored’s Team of the Round for his heroics between the sticks making eight key saves in the game, a couple of them from Leao himself.
There was no sign of Rafael Leao in that Team of the Round, so maybe it should have gone to Nick Pope and saved Leao the humiliation of accepting an award he didn’t feel he deserved.
Receive a digest of our best Newcastle content each week direct to your mailbox
