Erling Haaland, the striker for Manchester City, would receive the highly regarded Footballer of the Year award from the Football Writers’ Association (FWA). Haaland won the award with an unprecedentedly high percentage of the vote, earning 72%, while Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard, both Arsenal players, came in second and third place respectively. Haaland received this accolade following his outstanding debut season in England.
In other news, Sam Kerr, the striker for Chelsea, made history by becoming the first player to win the Women’s Footballer of the Year award in consecutive years. The Australia international dominated the voting, receiving twice as many votes as the second-place finisher, Rachel Daly of Aston Villa. Kerr’s teammate Lauren James secured third place in the voting for the award.
Since joining the Premier League champions, Haaland has had a remarkable debut season and has already scored an impressive 51 goals across all competitions. Last week, he broke the Premier League’s single-season scoring record with his 35th goal, which he scored during a 3-0 victory against West Ham United. Haaland has been breaking records almost every week at the Etihad Stadium since his transfer from Borussia Dortmund last summer.
Haaland has already broken the previous record for the most goals scored in all competitions by a Premier League player, with a remarkable 51 goals to his name. This is significantly higher than the 44 goals scored by Ruud van Nistelrooy for Manchester United in 2002-03, and Mohamed Salah in 2017-18. However, if he wants to break the all-time record for most goals scored in England’s top division, he still has some way to go, as Dixie Dean scored a staggering 60 goals for Everton in 1927-28.
The FWA has confirmed that both Haaland and Kerr will receive their awards on 25 May.