Sheringham wins PFA player of the year

Teddy Sheringham completed an awards double last night as he added the Professional Footballers' Association player of the year prize to the football writers' gong he won last week.

The Manchester United and England striker, who is the oldest winner of the title at the age of 35, headed the nominations in front of his club captain Roy Keane and Arsenal's Thierry Henry, in second and third respectively.

Liverpool's Steven Gerrard claimed the young player of the year award with West Ham's Joe Cole runner-up and another Manchester United player Wes Brown in third.

Sheringham, who received his award from Britain's greatest Olympian, rower Steve Redgrave, at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, described the award as the "biggest personal award you can get in the game".

Sheringham has yet to agree a new contract at Old Trafford, although the Premiership champions are keen for him to sign a one-year deal.

The former Tottenham forward maintains the recent tradition of players claiming the two most prestigious domestic player of the year awards, following Keane's double 12 months ago and David Ginola's PFA and football writers' accolades the year before.

Joining Sheringham and Keane, from the Old Trafford ranks, among the PFA team of the year were Brown, Fabien Barthez, Jaap Stam and Ryan Giggs.

However, there was no place for England captain David Beckham in the XI selected by his fellow professionals with Gerrard and Patrick Vieira of Arsenal completing the midfield quartet.

Gerrard was fittingly handed his trophy by England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, who no doubt views the 20-year-old midfielder as integral to his future plans.

Gerrard said: "I was in contention for the award last year and I really wanted to win it this year."

Republic of Ireland players Steve Finnan of Fulham and Blackburn's Damien Duff make the PFA Division One team while Graham Kavanagh finds himself on the Division Two selection.

Meanwhile, Alan Smith has been sacked as manager of Crystal Palace in the aftermath of yesterday's 2-0 home defeat by Wolves. The club have also ended Ray Houghton's tenure as assistant boss.