The Bundesliga have announced the nominees for the January Player of the Month award. The award is given for the player’s performance between matchday 17 and 19.
The nominees are Alejandro Grimaldo, Piero Hincapié (both Bayer Leverkusen), Niclas Füllkrug (Borussia Dortmund), Jamal Musiala (Bayern Munich), Niel Nkounkou (Eintracht Frankfurt), Deniz Undav (VfB Stuttgart).
Grimaldo provided three assists in January to help Leverkusen maintain their position at the top of the table. Against Augsburg, Grimaldo assisted Exequiel Palacios’ late winner. The Spaniard then did the same again a week later providing two assists as Leverkusen came from behind to beat RB Leipzig. Grimaldo’s teammate Hincapié was drafted in to fill in for Edmond Tapsoba who was at the Africa Cup of Nations and the Ecuador international seemingly slotted in and scored the winner against Leipzig.
Dortmund striker Füllkrug scored four goals in the month, most notably scoring a hat-trick against Bochum and a penalty against 1.FC Köln.
Musiala was nominated for consistent performance during the month, highlighted by his two goals against Hoffenheim at the beginning of the month.
After a brief settling-in period at Frankfurt, Nkounkou has finally made the left-back position his own and his month of January saw him score and assist.
Finally, Undav was nominated once again after winning the November Player of the Month. Undav’s January was highlighted by a hat-trick scored in Stuttgart’s 5-2 win against Leipzig at the end of the month.
GGFN | Jack Meenan
