Soccer

Jordan Henderson named Football Writers’ player of the year

He becomes the third Liverpool player to win the FWA award in the space of seven years

Jordan Henderson has captained Liverpool to the Premier League, the Champions League and the World Club Cup. File photograph: Getty Images

Fri Jul 24 2020 - 10:45

Jordan Henderson has been named the Football Writers' Association player of the year for his outstanding part in Liverpool's Premier League title triumph.

The captain played in 30 league matches until sustaining a knee injury this month that ruled him out of the final four games. Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne was second in the vote.

Henderson lifted the Premier League trophy at Anfield on Wednesday and becomes the third Liverpool player to win the FWA award in the space of seven years, following Luis Suárez in 2014 and Mohamed Salah in 2018.

“As grateful as I am I don’t feel like I can accept this on my own,” Henderson said. “I don’t feel like anything I’ve achieved this season or in fact during my whole career has been done on my own.

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“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 midfielder said he was accepting the award “on behalf of the whole squad” and added: “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 top five players in the FWA vote were Henderson, De Bruyne, Marcus Rashford, Virgil van Dijk and Sadio Mané, and 10 other players received votes: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson, Raheem Sterling, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Sergio Agüero, Adama Traoré, Danny Ings, Jack Grealish, James Maddison and Jonny Evans. - Guardian

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