Hardly noticed by Julian Nagelsmann: German World Cup driver humiliates the Premier League elite
Pascal Groß of Brighton & Hove Albion has been named Premier League Player of the Month for the first time. The league announced this officially on Friday.
The 35-year-old won the prestigious prize after polling the most votes from fans around the world on sponsor EA SPORTS' website, as well as from a selected panel of experts.
Groß is now the sixth-oldest professional to win the award in Premier League history. Only Stuart Pearce, Teddy Sheringham, both aged 38, Cristiano Ronaldo at 37, Gianfranco Zola at 36 and Paul Scholes, who was also 35 when he won it but six months older than the German, managed it at an even later stage of their careers.
The award caps a superb spell for the midfielder, who had become little more than a passenger at Borussia Dortmund before returning to Brighton at the start of the year. In September, Groß was involved in five of his six total goal contributions, the best return in the league. He scored twice and set up three more.
That run started in Brighton's 5-0 thrashing of Coventry City, when he scored once and created two more. He then went up another level in the 3-0 win over reigning champions Arsenal, scoring the opener before teeing up team-mate Chema Andres perfectly.
Premier League player of the month? Who did Pascal Groß beat?
In the vote, the veteran finished ahead of a strong field. Alongside his team-mate Charalampos Kostoulas, he beat Mohamed Belloumi (Hull City), Jayden Bogle (Leeds United), Liverpool duo Alexander Isak and Jeremy Jacquet, Kevin Schade (Brentford) and Antoine Semenyo (Manchester City).
With this individual honour, Groß is making club and football history in two ways. He is the first player in a Brighton & Hove Albion shirt ever to win the award.
Beyond that, he joins an exclusive group of German players in England. Before him, only Ilkay Gündogan, Leroy Sane and Jürgen Klinsmann had won the Premier League player of the month prize.
At the World Cup, though, Groß played only 17 minutes under former Germany head coach Julian Nagelsmann, coming in the final group game against Ecuador. Shortly after the round-of-32 exit against Paraguay, he announced his retirement from the Germany national team.
