Despite Bono's excellence: Roshn League awards best goalkeeper prize to a different keeper
The Moroccan star loses the challenge
Marcin Bulka has pulled off a genuine shock. The NEOM goalkeeper claimed the Roshn Saudi Pro League's best goalkeeper award for September, seeing off a host of big names, none bigger than Morocco's Yassine Bounou, the Al-Hilal keeper who kept a clean sheet in every match he played that month.
NEOM owed much of their fine month to the Pole. Bulka was a model of consistency between the posts and helped his side pick up crucial wins, and that form earned him an award that inevitably invited comparison with Bounou, especially given that the Al-Hilal man also failed to concede across his three September outings.
Bulka: 3 matches, 7 goals and clean sheets
Three appearances for NEOM in September brought two clean sheets. The first came against Al-Khaleej in a 3-0 win, the second against Al-Hilal, when his side pulled off a historic 2-0 victory.
The third match, against Al-Taawoun, finished 4-2 to NEOM. Bulka shipped two goals, yet his team settled the contest and banked another win, leaving the Polish keeper with three victories and just three goals conceded across the month.
Read also: Messi prompts Waleed Al-Faraj to attack the stars of the Saudi national team
Bulka was no passenger riding on his team's attacking firepower. He played his part in protecting NEOM's lead, above all against Al-Hilal, when the side shut down the leaders' attack and walked away with a clean 2-0 win.
Those results made for a flawless month. NEOM strung together three straight wins, the triumph over Al-Hilal among them, proof that they can go toe to toe with the Roshn League's heavyweights and that their Polish goalkeeper has become one of their most important men.
Bounou: clean sheets, but the award goes to someone else
Here's the twist. Yassine Bounou posted seriously strong numbers over the same period, playing three matches for Al-Hilal against Al-Ahli, Al-Shabab and Al-Taawoun, and keeping a clean sheet in all three.
Al-Hilal beat Al-Ahli 3-0, then saw off Al-Shabab 2-0, before hammering Al-Taawoun 6-0. Bounou kept his sheet clean throughout all three, a run that underlined the Moroccan's reliability across the month.
So Bulka's award is no slight on Bounou. Far from it. The numbers show the Al-Hilal keeper was very much present, but the prize went to the NEOM man on the strength of his team's results over the same period.
