Lacazette, Blanc take honours in French end-of-season awards

18 May, 2015

Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette was named France's player of the year at a ceremony in Paris on Sunday as Paris Saint-Germain boss Laurent Blanc won the Ligue 1 coach of the year prize. Lacazette won the award, voted for by his peers, ahead of PSG trio Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Javier Pastore and Marco Verratti after a remarkable season in which he has scored 27 Ligue 1 goals to help Lyon finish second and qualify for next season's Champions League.
Blanc won the coach's award for the second time in his career, a day after the capital club retained the French title.
The 49-year-old, who previously took the honour when in charge of Bordeaux in 2008, saw his PSG side secure a third consecutive Ligue 1 crown with a game to spare on Saturday after they beat Montpellier 2-1.
Having already won the season-opening Champions Trophy and the League Cup, PSG can win an unprecedented clean sweep of the domestic honours by beating second-tier Auxerre in the French Cup final on May 30.
Hubert Fournier of runners-up Lyon, Saint-Etienne coach Christophe Galtier and Guingamp coach Jocelyn Gourvennec were the other nominees. "This trophy is not a title, but a reward," said Blanc. "Titles are won on the field and are more important, they represent more. But I am nevertheless happy to be rewarded."
Blanc was beaten to the prize last year by Lille's Rene Girard and he added: "Last year I did not get the reward when we were more dominant in the league. But when I started out, I won it when we finished second (with Bordeaux)."
Lyon forward Nabil Fekir, who has scored 13 goals in Ligue 1 this season playing alongside Lacazette and recently broke into the French national set-up, won the young player of the year award.

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