PFA Scotland - Premiership Player Of The Year Nominations
A look at the nominees for this season and throughout the award's history
The four-man shortlist for PFA Scotland’s 2025/26 Premiership Player of the Year has produced one of the rarest line-ups in recent years, in what is the most extraordinary top-flight season this century. It will be the first time since 2012/13 that no Celtic or Rangers players have been nominated. This year will also be just the 11th time since the award’s introduction in 1977/78 that a non-Old Firm player has won the award, presented by the independent trade union for all professional footballers in Scotland.
My data on the shortlisted nominees for these awards only goes back to 2006, however I have the full list of winners since 1977/78.
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To have four nominees shortlisted and none of them to come from Rangers or Celtic is extremely rare. Thirteen years ago was the only time it’s happened since 2006, when Michael Higdon (Motherwell), Leigh Griffiths (Hibs), Niall McGinn (Aberdeen), Andrew Shinnie (ICT) were the final four in 2013.
Michael Higdon was the winner, a man who holds the distinction of not only being the only player from Motherwell F.C to ever win the award, but also the only player to be arrested after the awards ceremony for alleged assault in the Corinthian nightclub in Glasgow. After the Sunday night awards in May 2013, Higdon was due to meet journalists for a media conference at 08:30am on the Monday morning. The meeting was cancelled however, due to Higdon being remanded in the cells until 9am. The Fear.
THE FOUR NOMINEES IN 2026
Hearts strike partnership Claudio Braga and Lawrence Shankland are joined by Motherwell sensations Elijah Just and Tawanda Maswanhise. While Motherwell have had Kevin van Veen in 2023, and Hearts have had Shankland himself in 2024 as recent nominees, it’s the first time that either Hearts or Motherwell have supplied two nominees in a season.
Lawrence Shankland is the standout figure in the final four in terms of previous recognitions from the PFA. He won this very award in 2023-24, becoming the tenth non-Old Firm winner and the first since the aforementioned Higdon.
Shankland remains the only Hearts player to ever win the award.
In being nominated for the top prize for a second time, he instantly becomes one of the most nominated players in the modern era. His total of two nominations for Player of the Year can be bettered only by Callum McGregor and Steven Davis, who both have four nominations, and Kris Boyd, who has three.
If Shankland wins, he would become only the third two-time winner of the award after two Celtic legends; Henrik Larsson and Scott Brown.
Scottish players have received more nominations than any other nationality (31 nominations since 2006) and Scots have taken the award 25 times overall since 1977, so Shankland is in good company there
Shankland’s teammate and the early favourite for the award, Claudio Braga, is the first Portuguese player to be shortlisted since Pedro Mendes in 2008-09. As my data only goes back to 2006, I can’t be sure they are the only two Portuguese players to ever make the shortlist. I’d suspect the top scorer in the 1996/97 season who managed 33 goals in all competitions must have been in with a shout….
Jorge Cadete, who in 2014 was living on state benefits with his parents, was part of the 1996/97 Celtic team that finished five points adrift of a Rangers side that won their ninth consecutive title. Celtic had a sublimely talented trio in the form of Cadete, Pierre Van Hooijdonk, and Paolo di Canio - and it was the infamous Italian who took the PFA award that year. Painfully for Celtic fans, all three of them forced moves from the club that year, however it resulted in the club replacing them with Harald Brattbakk, Paul Lambert, Craig Burley and….Henrik Larsson.
Back to the present day and the two Motherwell nominees are the first representatives from their respective countries to make the shortlist; Elijah Just of New Zealand and Tawanda Maswanhise from Zimbabwe. For the league’s top scorer Maswanhise, he’s one of only three Zimbabweans to play in Scotland this century after Kundai Benyu (Celtic, 2018-2019) and Munashe Garananga (Hibs, current).
Although New Zealanders are more common in the SPFL than Zimbabweans, Just is still only one of 22 kiwis to play in Scotland this century, alongside players such as Alex Greive (St Mirren & Dundee United), Chris Killen (Celtic), George Stanger (Hamilton, Ayr & Kilmarnock) and Rory Fallon (Aberdeen and St. Johnstone).
Whoever wins the award on Sunday will take the acclaim after a fantastic season, and all four would make a deserving winner. More importantly than that, obviously, is what that means for the stats. The winner will move their club up to the joint-fourth most successful in the history of the PFA Player’ of the Year awards, behind only Aberdeen (4), Rangers (11) and Celtic (27).
TEAM OF THE YEAR
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