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A thread on the @theofficialfwa Footballer of the Year award. I am currently 24,000 words & counting into a history of the award including quotes from all previous winners bar two. These opinions are my own and not anything to do with the Footballer Writers' Association #FOTY20
Jordan Henderson is an excellent football player, a fantastic captain and leader and historically was always going to win the award. The number of captains who have won the award is extremely telling, but this has lessened a lot in recent years..
In the first 30 years of the award, 19 of the winners were captains (63%). This drops a huge amount in the next 40+ years to 16% - in total roughly 40% of winners were team captains.
Hard to put an exact year but I would say 1975 was the last time an FA Cup Final appearance was
Hard to put an exact year but I would say 1975 was the last time an FA Cup Final appearance was
enough to swing the vote (Alan Mullery at Div 2 Fulham - he had a great career but let's be honest Millwall's FA Cup captain Matthew Lawrence was nowhere near beating Thierry Henry to the 2004 award!). An FA Cup final used to be an almost necessity for the award winner..
(award was handed out two days before FA Cup final) nowadays it seems a League title / title challenge is a must. This century only three players have won the award coming from a side that didn't finish first or second and of those three, (Parker, Bale, RVP) RVPs Arsenal came 3rd
The award should be given "to the professional player who by precept and example is considered by a ballot of members to be the footballer of the year." - the award is not only for football merit and imo the early years show that was greatly taken into account, e.g. Div 2 player
Sir Stanley Matthews 2nd award aged 48. However, Luis Suarez was the winner in '14, an incredible season & player but not sure where the 'precept and example' was in that years voting? His season began with a ban for biting Ivanovic and was only 3 years after his ban for racism.
Taking into account Henderson was captain of an exceptional title winning side and through his off-field work led by 'precept and example' it is clear to see he was favourite going on history & award criteria.
Rashford clearly had a good chance as well.
Rashford clearly had a good chance as well.
If I had a vote it would have gone to De Bruyne, but he joins an illustrious list of players not to have won the award (& he still has time to win it) - Greaves, Law, Ball, Haynes, Milburn, Hurst, Shilton, Charles, Peters, Gascoigne, Hoddle, Aguero, D.Silva to name a few #FOTY20
Congratulations to @JHenderson, a brilliant season and 'by precept and example' is a fitting tribute to a fine footballer.
@NormanGiller as co-author of the book covering the first 50 years, what are your thoughts?
@NormanGiller as co-author of the book covering the first 50 years, what are your thoughts?
. @GerryCox, @PaulMcCarthy66 would you agree the mid-70s was when the FA Cup stopped being as relevant to the award? and did you have any issue with Suarez winning in 2014?
