Vangelis Pavlidis crowned Eredivisie Player of the Month for October

In his third season at AZ, Vangelis Pavlidis is on course to enjoy the best season of his career. The 24 year old goal-machine has scored in every game of the season so far and is chasing Johan Cruyff’s long-standing 'record', set when the Dutch football legend scored for Ajax in his first fourteen games of the 1966/67 season.

However, at that time, Cruyff was absent for one match in the third round, which technically means that Pavlidis has set a new Eredivisie record. Additionally, the AZ striker is the first player to score in ten consecutive Eredivisie matches since Wilfried Bony in 2013 (also 10). Pavlidis is currently the Eredivisie’s leading scorer with fourteen goals.

Many of these goals were scored in October. Although his goal against Fortuna Sittard on 1 October (which counted towards last month’s award selection process) and last Sunday’s goal in the match against N.E.C. Nijmegen (the remainder of which will be played at 6 December) are not included in this month’s statistics, Pavlidis still scored four times in his two other appearances. In Amsterdam, the Greek international put AZ ahead against Ajax during a 2-1 away win, while he helped his club to a comfortable 3-0 home victory against sc Heerenveen by scoring a hat-trick.

Pavlidis finished October with a minutes-per-goal ration of a goal every 40 minutes. Four of his six shots were on target; all of which were goals. Pavlidis also won twelve duels and recorded seventeen touches of the ball in the penalty area. The striker was voted KPN Man of the Match in both games.

Thanks to Pavlidis’ superb goal ratio, AZ are currently second after nine games. Having previously been crowned Eredivisie Player of the Month for August, this is the second time the Greek striker has received the award. The 24 year old also receives an Eredivisie Player of the Month card in the game, EA SPORTS FC™ 24.

Pavlidis saw off competition from players including PSV’s Johan Bakayoko, Go Ahead Eagles’ Jeffrey de Lange and Feyenoord’s Santiago Giménez.

The Eredivisie Player of the Month, Johan Cruyff Talent of the Month and Eredivisie Team of the Month are selected on the basis of statistics (Opta) and votes from football fans (KPN Man of the Match). These criteria also play a role in establishing the shortlist for the Eredivisie Player of the Year and Johan Cruyff Talent of the Year awards. These awards, along with the Azerion Vrouwen Eredivisie awards, are presented during the Eredivisie Awards ceremony.

The selection of the Eredivisie Player of the Month is an initiative of Eredivisie CV, in partnership with ESPN and EA SPORTS FC™ 24. The selection process for the Johan Cruyff Talent of the Month is organised by Eredivisie CV, in partnership with ESPN, the Cruyff Foundation and the VriendenLoterij (FriendsLottery).