Liverpool's Jordan Henderson named Football Writers' Association Player of the Year
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The Football Writers’ Association on Friday announced that Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson has been selected as the Footballer of the Year for 2019-20 season after Reds ended a 30-year wait to lift the Premier League trophy.
The Football Writers’ Association on Friday announced that Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson has been selected as the Footballer of the Year for 2019-20 season after Reds ended a 30-year wait to lift the Premier League trophy.
The Liverpool skipper saw off competition from Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne, Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford and as well as Virgil Van Dijk and Sadio Mane to claim the coveted honour, the older individual award in the world.
Two other Liverpool players, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Allison Becker also received votes with the newly-crowned Premier League champions dominating the voting process.
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As well as the top five of Henderson, De Bruyne, Rashford, Van Dijk and Mane, ten other players received votes from FWA members including Alexander-Arnold, Alisson, Raheem Sterling, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Sergio Aguero, Adama Traore, Danny Ings, Jack Grealish, James Madison and Jonny Evans.
Henderson said: “I’d like to say how appreciative I am of the support of those who voted for me and the Football Writers’ Association in general. You only have to look at the past winners of it, a number of whom I’ve been blessed to play with here at Liverpool, like Stevie (Gerrard), Luis (Suarez) and Mo (Salah) to know how prestigious it is.
"But as grateful as I am I don’t feel like I can accept this on my own. I don’t feel like anything I’ve achieved this season or in fact during my whole career has been done on my own. I owe a lot to so many different people – but none more so than my current teammates – who have just been incredible and deserve this every bit as much as I do.
“We’ve only achieved what we’ve achieved because every single member of our squad has been brilliant. And not just in matches. Not just in producing the moments that make the headlines and the back pages but every day in training.
“The players who’ve started the most games for us this season have been as good as they have been because of our culture and our environment at Melwood. No one individual is responsible for that – it’s a collective effort and that’s how I view accepting this honour.
“I accept it on behalf of this whole squad, because without them I’m not in a position to be receiving this honour. These lads have made me a better player – a better leader and a better person.
“If anything I hope those who voted for me did so partly to recognise the entire team’s contribution.
"Individual awards are nice and they are special and I will cherish this one. But an individual award without the collective achievement wouldn’t mean anywhere as much to me – if anything at all.”
The Footballer of the Year trophy has been awarded since 1948 when Sir Stanley Matthews was its first recipient.