Kevin de Bruyne votes for Mo Salah as PFA player of the year because he can’t vote for anyone at Manchester City

KEVIN DE BRUYNE has voted for main rival Mohamed Salah to win the PFA Player of the Year.

The Manchester City midfielder and Liverpool forward are going head-to-head for the gong following their stunning seasons.

De Bruyne has been favourite to win the award all season following his contribution in Man City's impending title-winning campaign.

But Salah, a £34million summer signing from Roma, is running him close with a remarkable 36 goals to his name including 29 in the league.

So nobody could blame the Belgian if he had voted for the likes of Harry Kane to increase his chances of claiming the accolade.

But the 26-year-old couldn't resist acknowledging the Egyptian as his closest rival and admitted Salah deserves it.

Speaking to BT Sport ahead of City's huge Champions League tie with Liverpool, he said: "I voted for Salah for footballer of the year because he deserves it. If it’s nobody from our team I think Salah deserves it.

"I don’t look at what happened before I don’t know how to pick anyone else other than Salah if I can’t pick someone from my team.

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"I don’t know if he would vote for me, I’m fair you know, if he wins he wins.

"He is up there with Kane, me and David (Silva) for me. They are the four best players of this year consistently. I’m honest with my voting, he deserves it, if other people don’t do it I don’t mind."

BT Sport's Des Kelly revealed a snap shot of De Bruyne's voting paper that confirmed he also voted for Tottenham's Davinson Sanchez to be crowned Young Player of the Year.

Rules state that a player can only vote for a rival player and not his team-mate.

The two players will be hoping to do their talking on the pitch when they come up against each other at Anfield on Wednesday night.