{"id":6614,"date":"2026-05-09T22:40:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T22:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=6614"},"modified":"2026-05-09T22:40:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T22:40:54","slug":"picture-juan-mata-proves-class-is-permanent-as-he-lands-prestigious-award-man-united-news-and-transfer-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=6614","title":{"rendered":"Picture: Juan Mata proves class is permanent as he lands prestigious award &#8211; Man United News And Transfer News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"penci-post-entry-inner\">\n<p>\t\t\t<i class=\"penci-post-countview-number-check\" style=\"display:none\">11<\/i><\/p>\n<p><!--Article Start--><br \/>Former Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata has been named Melbourne Victory\u2019s Player of the Year after his superb season.<\/p>\n<h3>Enduring class<\/h3>\n<p>Mata joined Melbourne Victory at the start of the 2025\/26 season after a spell at fellow A-League outfit Western Sydney Wanderers.<\/p>\n<p>He lit up the competition in just his second season in Australia, netting five goals and 13 assists. He has recorded the second-most assists in a single A-League season after Aaron Mooy in the 2015\/16 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>While Melbourne Victory did not win silverware, Mata\u2019s season will live long in the memory. The Spaniard\u2019s exploits have seen him scoop up Melbourne Victory\u2019s Player of the Season award.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">38-year-old Juan Mata has been voted Melbourne Victory\u2019s Player of the Year after his 17 goal involvements for the Australian side this season. Class is permanent \ud83d\udc4f\ud83c\udf77 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8TF39PdOoe\">pic.twitter.com\/8TF39PdOoe<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/footballontnt\/status\/2052659839889752137?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>But it\u2019s unclear where Mata will be playing his football next season. Speaking to <em>AAP<\/em> earlier this month, he informed the news outlet that he had not thought much about the future.<\/p>\n<p>The 38-year-old remarked, \u201cTo be honest, I haven\u2019t put my mind into (contract discussions).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to finish the finals \u2013 hopefully it\u2019s going to be good for us \u2013 and then take some time to make a decision with myself, with my family, and put everything in the balance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I can say is that up until now, I have enjoyed this season. I have enjoyed on the pitch, off the pitch, in the training ground, the culture and the environment in the club. So I haven\u2019t made a decision yet. I will do it after.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>United stint<\/h3>\n<p>Mata joined United from Chelsea in January 2014 for a then club-record fee of \u00a337.1m.<\/p>\n<p>He spent eight and a half seasons at Old Trafford before his exit in 2022. During that time, Mata made 285 appearances for the Red Devils, contributing 51 goals.<\/p>\n<p>The veteran midfielder helped United win the FA Cup, Community Shield, EFL Cup and the Europa League. He started in the Europa League final victory over Ajax.<\/p>\n<p>After United, Mata enjoyed stints at Galatasaray and Vissel Kobe before moving to Australia.<\/p>\n<p><em>Featured image Daniel Pockett via Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p>The Peoples Person has been one of the world\u2019s leading Man United news sites for over a decade. Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social<\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 2 --><\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>11 Former Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata has been named Melbourne Victory\u2019s Player of the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}