Award-winner Sterling ‘a player of style and man of substance’
Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling has been voted the 2019 Footballer of the Year by the Football Writers’ Association.
The England international topped the poll of the 400-strong FWA membership as a clear winner, with some 62 per cent of the votes. He was more than 100 ahead of Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk. Sterling’s team-mate Sergio Aguero was in third place.
The FWA Women’s Footballer of the Year award for 2019 went to Manchester City’s England forward Nikita Parris, who won the vote of an FWA panel of experts by the narrowest of margins from Arsenal and Netherlands striker Vivianne Miedema.
Other players to receive votes from FWA members were, in alphabetical order: Eden Hazard (Chelsea), Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur), Alexandre Lacazette (Arsenal), Bernardo Silva and David Silva (Manchester City).
On Sunday evening, Sterling, 24, was announced as the 2018-19 Professional Footballers’ Association Young Player of the Year.
As well as being a key man in Pep Guardiola’s side as they battle with Liverpool for the Premier League title, Sterling has also received praised for the strong stance he has taken against racism in the game, having himself been subjected to abuse.
Sterling has scored 29 goals for club and country, including a hat-trick for England in the opening Euro 2020 qualifier against the Czech Republic at Wembley, while also helping Gareth Southgate’s young squad reach this summer’s Nations League finals.
Sterling will be presented with the Footballer of the Year trophy, which has been awarded since 1948, at The Landmark London on 9 May, when Parris will also collect her accolade.
Newly-elected FWA chair Carrie Brown said: “Raheem Sterling is a player of style and a man of substance.
“He is an exemplar of the talent and values our founding fathers sought to reward when they established the FWA in 1947.”