Last Sunday night, the PFA Young Player of the Year award for the 2016-2017 season was announced. In an award decided by every footballer plying their trade in the Premier League and given to the best player in the league equal to or under the age of 23, it was Dele Alli who was given this prestigious award.

The 21-year-old midfielder ousted Jordan Pickford, Michael Keane, Harry Kane, Romelu Lukaku and Leroy Sane on his way to receiving the trophy.

Alli has had another terrific season and this triumph is the second consecutive year that he has been named the PFA Young Player of the Year. But other youngsters have also had fine seasons, with Kane and Lukaku in particular enjoying prolific campaigns.

So the question must be raised: Did Alli deserve to win the trophy? Or did one of the other contenders have a better season than the Spurs midfielder?

Shoot! ranks the six footballers that were nominated for the award in order of how they have performed, before revealing who he thinks should have won the PFA Young Player of the Year for the 2016-2017 season…

6) Leroy Sane

The player that had the worst season out of the nominees was Leroy Sane. Although his form has picked up in 2017, he has not done enough at the moment to justify a deal that could cost Manchester City a staggering £45m.

Before Game Week 22, the German had only made nine appearances; four of them being starts.

That means that before January 21, the winger had only accumulated 392 Premier League minutes. Despite his young age, for someone that cost so much, that is simply not good enough.

Even since that game against Tottenham on January 21, Sane has enjoyed a run in the team and has been good, but not overly impressive.

Over the course of the whole season, he has only scored nine goals and contributed four assists, not an overly impressive tally for a winger.

This is not to say Sane has had a bad season. It clearly started off slow and got better as the campaign went on. But he has not performed well enough to justify being nominated for the award.

Nevertheless, Sane has showed his potential towards the end of this campaign and we believe he will perform to an even better standard next term.

5) Michael Keane

The former Manchester United central defender has had a terrific first season upon his return to the Premier League with Burnley.

He has been instrumental in a team that was widely tipped for relegation, with his contribution in defence being vital to Burnley occupying 16th place in the league.

Whereas his team have struggled in attack (18th best in the Premier League), it has been there defence which has performed to a better standard (11th best in the league). This is mostly down to the contribution of Keane at the heart of defence.

In total, Keane has been an ever present in the Burnley defence, playing every single minute in their 34 league games to date. He has received plaudits from many pundits and he has been rewarded for his contribution with his first cap for England.

He has been integral for the Lancashire outfit this year and his performances make it look almost certain that he will make a move to one of the bigger clubs in country this summer. And deservedly so.

4) Jordan Pickford

One of the biggest success stories in the Premier League this year has been the emergence of Sunderland’s young goalkeeper, Jordan Pickford.

The 23-year-old shot stopper has been forced into action much more than he would have hoped in his debut year as a starting ‘keeper, but he has stood up to the task on a consistent basis.

Unfortunately, Pickford is not going to win any clean sheet or goals conceded tables. In fact, he has only kept three clean sheets in his 24 starts and has conceded 39 goals in the process (the seventh most in the league). But it could have been a lot worse for Sunderland had it not been for Pickford.

He has performed heroically in goal when he has started and despite him only playing 24 games, he is second in the saves category with 109.

Sunderland may be languishing at the bottom of the table, but this stat shows it would have been even worse had it not been for the superb goalkeeping of their young star,

Sunderland have almost been a two-man-team given the excellent performances of Jermain Defoe and Pickford, and we would not be surprised if a top Premier League club snaps up the young stopper next season.

3) Harry Kane

With all due respect to the names already mentioned, the next three have been on an entirely different level and all could have been in contention for the main award. You could not dispute if any of the top three in this article won the Young Player of the Year award.

Kane has been terrific this season. Despite missing for portions of the season, Kane has scored 20 goals in 25 games at an impressive 0.83 goals per game. He currently stands in second place in the goalscoring charts and these goals have been a big reason why Tottenham are flourishing in second place in the table.

However, what harms his bid for the PFA Players’ Player award was that when he was injured, Tottenham actually embarked on a very good run of form. They did not struggle for goals when he was missing, with Dele Alli and Heung-min Son in particular stepping up in his absence.

It also does not help that many would perhaps perceive Kane to be ‘too old’ for the award. Although he is only 23, he has been an established Premier League striker for three years and having also been nominated for the main award, many would have probably voted for someone else in the category.

Nevertheless, Kane has been in exemplary form once again this season, but his performances have not merited him winning this particular accolade for the second time.

2) Romelu Lukaku

Romelu Lukaku has lived up to his lofty expectations this season. He has been in lethal form in front of goal this season, scoring 24 goals in 33 games for his club. That is four goals more than his nearest competitor for the Golden Boot, Harry Kane.

Although he has had a prolific season, many have criticised his performances in big games. Despite finding the net in regularity this season, he has only tallied three goals against the other clubs in the top seven – not good enough for a striker of Lukaku’s calibre.

Moreover, many deem him to be no more than a goalscorer. Despite his physical capabilities, many pundits have criticised the Belgian for his performances, claiming he is not the complete striker he has the potential to be.

Nevertheless, given his goal tally the powerful striker must be doing something right this season, and will have deserved a transfer is he decides to make the move go a bigger club in the summer.

1) Dele Alli

For the second year running, the Premier League’s Young player of the Year award was won by Dele Alli. Did he deserve it? Of course he did.

The former Milton Keynes Dons midfielder has been a revelation ever since he joined Tottenham. Incredibly, they got him for a fee of £5m, a fee that looks to be a bargain given his performances across the last two seasons.

Despite winning the trophy last year, he has had an even better campaign in the 2016-2017 season. Despite a slow start, he has been in incredible goalscoring form in the second-half of the term. He has currently notched 16 goals, making him the highest goalscoring midfielder in the league.

To put his goalscoring prowess into further consideration, we must compare him to Premier League greats, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard. Despite having six games to play; Alli’s 16-goal season equals Gerrard’s best tally, whilst Lampard only beat that mark once, netting 22 times in 2008-09.

Moreover, Alli does not have the same luxury of being his side’s free-kick and penalty taker, as Gerrard and Lampard did. With all this in consideration, that makes his tally very impressive.

Of course, Alli has done far more than just score goals. He has also assisted his team-mates on seven occasions and also contributes heavily in defence.

At just 21-years-old, Alli has the world at his feet and if he carries on this type of form, he will undoubtedly be a Premier League great.