Proud Henderson dedicates Player of Year award to Pool
LIVERPOOL captain Jordan Henderson has been voted the 2019-20 Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year.
The England midfielder steered Liverpool to their first Premier League title in 30 years and the Reds were crowned English champions, following on from their Champions League triumph last season.
With Henderson as captain, Liverpool secured the title with arecordsevengameslefttoplay, and with an 18-point lead over Manchester City ahead of tomorrow’s final round of fixtures, they could yet break the record for the largest winning margin — the existing record of 19 is held by second-placed City.
However, what swayed the vote in Henderson’s favour was the work that he did off the pitch during the coronavirus crisis. Henderson proved a leading figure in gathering the 20 Premier League captains and working towards a resolution not just in negotiating pay cuts and deferrals between players and clubs, but building a way where they could help the NHS and other services who felt the strain during the pandemic.
The 30-year-old, who succeeded Steven Gerrard as Liverpool captain in 2015, beat City midfielder Kevin de Bruyne into second place, with Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford coming in third after a vote by the members of the Football Writers’ Association.
His Liverpool team-mates Virgil van Dijk and Sadio Mane completed the top five, while there were also votes for Trent Alexander-arnold, Alisson, Raheem Sterling, Aaron Wan-bissaka, Sergio Aguero, Adama Traore, Danny Ings, Jack Grealish, James Madison and Northern Ireland international Jonny Evans.
“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,” Henderson said.
“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 Ste
4. 5.
vie (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 team-mates, 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 anywhereasmuchtome—ifanything at all.”
His manager Jurgen Klopp said the award was well deserved.
“Resilience made him the player he is now,” Klopp said.
“Is it the talent or the attitude? The answer is it’s probably a mix.
“Always a really skilled boy. He was already an exceptional player but at the highest level you have to be prepared to fight every day. He made his way and it’s absolutely deserved.
“Other players played an exceptional season, but if you want to have a guy who fought his way through to the point where he is now, absolutely deserved, one of the best players in the league and this year everyone’s acknowledged that.”