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WORTHY WINNER: Golden Arrows strike Abia Nale has won Absa Premiership Player of the Month for April. Picture: Tertius Pickard / Gallo Images

YOUNG Golden Arrows striker Abia Nale was today announced as the winner of the Absa Premiership Player of the Month for April.

Nale beat Platinum Stars' Tshepo Ramokala and Kaizer Chiefs' goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune to the award, which carries R10 000.

"Under normal circumstances it would be difficult to judge an award of this nature, and now developments in the league title race which has had a significant impact on the performance of the players, made it even more challenging when we sat down to deliberate the April winner for the Absa Premiership Player of the Month Awards," said Eddie Lewis, who is the convener of the judging panel.

Four players from Mamelodi Sundowns were also close contenders with Jorge Acuna, Brian Baloyi, Lerato Chabangu and Josta Dladla all making the initial short list of 11 players considered for the monthly honours.

"We certainly had to put a lot of thought into the finalists and considered a number of factors before deciding on the April winner.

"There were tight calls on certain players, and eventually the initial short-list of 11 was whittled down to the three strongest contenders for the month of April."

The judges felt that Nale, who is possibly one of the most underrated support strikers, showed what he is really made of during Golden Arrows' good run of form during the month of April, when he consistently demonstrated his influential role in their victories.

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