Riyad Mahrez on 24 April 2016 became the first African footballer to win the Professional Footballers Association’s (PFA) Player of the Year award for the 2015–16 season. The footballer received the award at the Professional Footballers’ Association awards ceremony organised in London.
With the award, Mahrez also became the second non-European, after Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez, to grab the award.
On the other hand, Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dele Alli was named Young Player of the Year.
• Riyad Mahrez is a professional footballer who plays for English club Leicester City and the Algerian national team as a winger.
• He began his career as a youth player for French club AAS Sarcelles.
• He turned professional in 2009.
• He made his international debut for Algeria in 2014 and represented them at the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.
• The Professional Footballers' Association Players' Player of the Year is an annual award given to the player who is adjudged to have been the best of the year in English football.
• The award has been presented since the 1973–74 season and the winner is chosen by a vote amongst the members of the players' trade union, the Professional Footballers' Association.
• The first winner of the award was Leeds United defender Norman Hunter.
• Chelsea’s Eden Hazard was the PFA Player of the Year for the 2014-2015 season.

K Ashok Kumar, a research scholar from IIT Kharagpur (KGP), won the prestigious International Plant Nutrition Scholar Award.
•    Kumar, a research scholar at the department of agricultural and food engineering at the Bengal-based IIT, was recently awarded by the US-based International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI). The award carries a cash prize of 2000 US dollar and a recognition certificate.
•    Ashok is pursuing his PhD on 'Comparative Assessment of Direct and Residual Effects of Organic and Inorganic Nutrient Management on Rice-Chickpea Production System in Lateritic Soil.'
•    The objective of this research is to study the soil nutrient dynamics under organic and inorganic nutrient management to improve the crop yield and quality of rice-chickpea cropping system in lateritic soil.
•    The research will help application of organic fertilizers such as vermicompost in right amount and at the right time to the rice crop. It will increase the yield of the rice-chickpea cropping system by 10% as compared to the use of conventional synthetic fertilizers.
•    Further, the organic fertilizer application will improve the nutritional and cooking quality of rice grain and chemical and biological properties of the acid lateritic soil.
•    The International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) Board of Directors offers two awards of interest to graduate students and scientists working in plant nutrition and management of crop nutrients and they are International Plant Nutrition Scholar Awards and IPNI Science Award.
•    The International Plant Nutrition Scholar Awards are open to applicants who are graduate students and attending a degree-granting institution located in any country with an IPNI program. Priority is given to the relevance of the proposed research in support of IPNI's mission.
•    Students in the disciplines of soil and plant sciences including agronomy, horticulture, ecology, soil fertility, soil chemistry, crop physiology, and other areas related to plant nutrition are encouraged to apply for the award.

Professional football club Mohun Bagan and India striker Jeje Lalpekhlua on 25 April 2016 won the Football Players’ Association of India (FPAI) Indian Player of the Year award at its annual awards function held in Mumbai.
Lalpekhlua received the highest number of votes from fellow professional footballers to finish on top in the shortlist which included India captain Sunil Chhetri, BikashJairu, David Lalrinmuana and Dhanachandra Singh.
Nigerian striker Ranti Martins, who played for East Bengal in the I-League, was named the Foreign Player of the Year.
The Manipur-born Udanta Singh of I-League champion Bengaluru FC bagged the Young Player of the Year award. Bengaluru FC’s coach Ashley Westwood won the Coach of the Year award.
DebjitMajumder was named the Fans’ Player of the Year.• Born on 7 January 1991 in Mizoram, JejeLalpekhlua is an Indian footballer who plays for Chennaiyin in the Indian Super League.
• He scored the only goal in a win against Afghanistan in the SAFF Cup group stage match in Bangladesh.
• He led the Indian U19 team to the South Asian games in Sri Lanka.
• Mohun Bagan Athletic Club is a professional football club based in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
• The club was established in 1889 by BhupendraNath Bose and is the oldest existing football club in India.
• The club was awarded the distinction of being the National Club of India by former Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi as well as by the All India Football Federation in 1989.