Leicester City trio highlights PFA Player of the Year nominees

Three Leicester City players are among the six nominees on Wednesday's shortlist for the PFA Player of the Year award.

Jamie Vardy, N'Golo Kante, and Riyad Mahrez were named as finalists for the 2015-16 Premier League season, alongside Arsenal maestro Mesut Ozil, Tottenham striker Harry Kane, and West Ham midfielder Dimitri Payet.

The formidable Leicester trio have their team on the brink of an unimaginable, historic Premier League title. With only five matches remaining on their calendar, all eyes are on the Foxes, who have a seven-point lead over Spurs at the top of the table.

Vardy has been a huge catalyst in Leicester's rise to the top, having scored 21 goals and recorded six assists this season. His rags-to-riches story, which has seen the sinewy attacker rise from non-league obscurity to potentially starting for England at Euro 2016, has captivated the Premier League this season.

Mahrez, meanwhile, has been equally productive, notching 16 goals and 11 assists himself. The lithe Algerian has made a habit out of embarrassing opposing defenders throughout the campaign, with his left foot becoming one of the most feared weapons in the league.

As for Kante, Leicester's indefatigable, ball-winning extraordinaire, the Frenchman has been nothing short of a brick wall in midfield. A relative unknown heading into the season, the diminutive star has been gaining well-deserved plaudits from all angles as the year has progressed, and he deserves each and every bit of praise.

While Vardy's goal-scoring heroics and Mahrez's penchant for assists have combined to take Leicester to the top, neither player leads in each respective category. Kane sits pretty with 22 goals scored this season, and the English striker was also nominated for the PFA Young Player of the Year award for his exploits.

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Ozil's six goals have helped the Gunners to a third-place spot, but it's his penchant for assists that has the German maestro on this list. The midfielder leads the league with 18 on the campaign, just two behind Thierry Henry's Premier League record for a single season.

As for Payet, the French newcomer has collected a respectable nine goals and eight assists in his first season in England, propelling West Ham to sixth place and into contention for European competition next season.

His spectacular ability to make goalkeepers look entirely helpless from free-kicks has become a thing of legend this season, and while West Ham looks destined to fall short of claiming a Champions League berth, the fact that the Hammers were involved in the race at all comes down almost entirely to the summer signing's brilliance.