Vote for the PSA Men’s Player of the Year

As the 2023-24 season draws to a close, the nominees for the PSA Men’s Player of the Year have been confirmed with four players in the running to claim the coveted award.

The 2023-24 season has so far seen seven Platinum level events, eight Gold level events, seven Silver level events and ten Bronze level events with the British Open, Manchester Open and QSF 3 still to play. All of these events has seen the world’s top players battling for prestigious titles all over the world with many outstanding performances along the way.

Voting will close at 23:59 (GMT+1) on Monday May 27, with the winner announced at the PSA Awards dinner held at The Book Rotunda in Birmingham on Saturday June 8 following the semi-finals of the British Open.

Below is the shortlist for PSA Men’s Player of the Year award. Cast your vote below.

Voting comprises a two-part process, combining the votes made by squash fans on social media with the votes made by the PSA Awards Committee – a group consisting of selected influential former players, members of the media, tournament promoters and PSA Board representatives.

This then determines the winners of the four biggest annual awards; Female Player of the Year, Male Player of the Year, Young Female Player of the Year and Young Male Player of the Year

The players with the most cumulative points are the winners.

Ali Farag

Runaway World No.1 Ali Farag has been in sensational form this season, capturing seven titles. The Egyptian started the season in great style with back to back wins at the Paris Squash 2023 and QTerminals Qatar Classic before claiming Gold event wins in Singapore and Houston with a third J.P Morgan Tournament of Champions title in-between.

Farag then returned to a favoured destination, Chicago, for the Windy City Open and again tasted victory in the sixth Platinum event of the season. After two runner-up finishes, Farag then claimed the El Gouna International title for the third time in his career taking his total titles tally to 40, level with ‘The Artist’ and former World Champion Ramy Ashour.

Paul Coll

New Zealand’s Paul Coll entered the 2023/24 season as World No.5 after a disappointing 22/23 season took him outside the top 4. Coll looked to have changed several aspects of his game and has admitted to PSA since that he is back to enjoying the process which was certainly showing in his squash. Coll brought it all together in Philadelphia for the U.S Open where he defeated Farag in the final to win his first Platinum title since the British Open in 2022. The New Zealand No.1 followed that up in the next major event as he again downed Farag in the final of the Hong Kong Open. Coll closed out the year with a special win on home soil at the New Zealand Open after losing out the year before.

After an early exit in New York, Coll then reached the final of his next four events and claimed the London double with impressive wins at the Optasia Championships and London Squash Classic. Coll will be desperate to score a hat-trick of British Open titles in June to end the season on a high.

Mostafa Asal

‘Raging Bull’ Mostafa Asal endured a staggered start to the this season as he missed out on the opening Platinum events due to suspension. Asal returned at the Grasshopper Cup and after falling in the last eight in Switzerland, has failed to reach the semi-finals only once in the 11 events that has followed, making him one of the most consistent players at the top of the game this season.

Asal claimed his first title of the season at the inaugural Florida Open in January but has hit his best form in recent months as he recorded three straight finals, losing the London Classic Final and El Gouna International final but impressively won the Black Ball Open Gold event, becoming only the second player to be able to beat Ali Farag.

Diego Elias

The World Champion. Diego Elias achieved a childhood dream over the weekend as he picked up his first World Championships title in Cairo. In the momentous week for the Peruvian, he became the first South American ever to win the prestigious title and did so by only dropping one single game all tournament. Elias beat former World Champion Karim Abdel Gawad in the quarter finals before ensuring there would be a new champion by beating reigning champion Ali Farag 3-1. After two confident game in the final, the 27-year-old took a tiebreak third game 12-10 to claim the win.

The season overall has been slightly underwhelming from Elias, he lost out in four finals (all to Farag) before he claimed his first title in February at the Motor City Open. He claimed another Silver title a week later at the Pittsburgh Open and before winning the ultimate prize in Cairo on the weekend, these were his only wins this season.