Kenyan international Eric ‘Marcelo’ Ouma has been nominated for the defender of the year award in the Swedish top tier end-of-season awards following his exploits for his club AIK.Ouma will battle it out for the award alongside his teammate and club captain Alexander Milošević who plays center back and Djurgården’s Hjalmar Ekdal.The former Gor Mahia left-back has featured in all but one of the 29 games for AIK, being subbed off only once, and will be hoping to make his 29th appearance in the last game of the season against IK Sirius on Saturday.In the 28 games that he has featured in, he has helped AIK to keep 11 clean sheets and will be up to make it 12 in the last game of the season, having scored once against IFK Göteborg and providing assists in five other instances.He missed in only the 1-0 win against IK Sirius in the first leg due to suspension.While the Harambee Stars defender has featured in 28 league games, the other contenders for the award have played in lesser games with Milošević featuring in 27 games while Ekdal has featured in 25.Milošević leads the clean sheet standings for the three defenders with 12, as Marcelo follows with 11, and Ekdal has the least of them all with just nine.Ekdal however has four goals to his name in the league but has not set up any, while Milošević has three and one assist, and Marcelo has one and five assists.All Allsvenskan clubs’ will be involved in the voting process, with coaches and team captains representing the 16 clubs as well as 32 sports journalists who have covered the league throughout the season.The final game of the season will be a crucial one for AIK as they are just two points off league leaders Malmo who play Halmstad in the final game. A loss for Malmo in this game would see Ouma’s team crowned champions in the event that they beat Sirius.They have, however, sealed a Europa Conference League Qualification spot as they sit second but they risk being overtaken by Djurgården who play BK Hacken if they lose on the final day.
