Nuno Mendes named Young Player of the Year for 2022/23 season

PSG defender and Portugal international Nuno Mendes was named Young Player of the Year for the Ligue 1 2022/23 season in the 31st edition of the Trophées UNFP, held on Sunday evening.

Mendes joined teammate Kylian Mbappe (Best Player of the Year) as the only player winning an individual award while representing PSG. Both Lionel Messi (who skipped attending the event) and Gianluigi Donnarumma didn't win the awards for the categories for which they were nominated.

Aged just 20 years old, Mendes was nominated for the first time for this award last year after joining PSG on loan from Porto in the winter transfer window of 2022. He failed on winning the award last season, but he finally broke through this campaign putting on an impressive year at PSG before suffering a season-ending injury.

Mendes edged Elye Wahi (Montpellier), Eliesse Ben Seghir (Monaco), Bradley Barcola (Lyon), and Rayan Cherki (Lyon) to the award, winning it for the first time in his young career.

The Portugal left-back wrapped up his Ligue 1 season appearing in 23 games with PSG and scoring one goal through 1,548 minutes. He also assisted 6 more goals to his teammates.

In a medical statement published on its official website at the start of May, the medical staff of Paris Saint-Germain announced that "after suffering a lesion to his right hamstring against Lorient, Nuno Mendes will not play again this season."

Since the start of the campaign, the left wing-back of PSG suffered four different injuries, every one of them muscle-related. The Parisian no. 25 missed 72 days of competition and 10 official matches in all competitions before getting shut down for the remainder of the year.

PSG expect to have him fit and available as soon as next month and ready to take part on the pre-season ahead of the start of the 2023/24 season.