By Donata Mpochela
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)– Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson has been named as the Football Writers’ Association’s Footballer of the Year.
Henderson beat Manchester United’s Marus Rashford, Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne and his fellow teammates Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mane, Alisson and Trent-Alexander Arnold, all of whom received votes, to the award, which is selected by the Football Writers in England.
The award is the oldest individual award for footballers in the world and was won by Henderson’s former Liverpool current England teammate Raheem Sterling last season.
There had been a lot of talk about who would win the award this season with both on-field and off-field actions taken into consideration by the voters.
De Bruyne has been in unbelievable form for City this season, whilst Rashford has been very impressive too and made national headlines for his campaign to get the government to make a u-turn on their decision to not give free meals to children in need throughout the summer months.
Henderson, as well as captaining Liverpool to the Premier League title with some excellent performances, was the driving force behind the Premier League players fund which raised money for the NHS in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak.
In a statement on the FWA website, 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.
Nice one, He has been very outstanding throughout the season. Congratulations Jordan Henderson, we @ busitechnews.com wishes you the very best.