Liverpool's Jordan Henderson named FWA Footballer of the Year

Liverpool’s captain, Jordan Henderson, has been crowned Football Writers’ Association (FWA) Footballer of the Year for the 2019-20 season, beating Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne and Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford and team-mates Virgil van Dijk and Sadio Mane to claim the honour.

Liverpool’s dominance in the league was reflected in the voting as Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alisson Becker also received votes, but it was Henderson who was the clear winner.

The 30-year-old midfielder, who led Liverpool to their first league title in 30 years this season, received more than a quarter of the votes.

“As grateful as I am I don’t feel like I can accept this on my own,” he says.

“I owe a lot to so many people but none more so than my current team-mates, who have been incredible and deserve this every bit as much as I do.”

Ten other players received votes from FWA members including last year’s winner Raheem Sterling, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Sergio Aguero, Adama Traore, Danny Ings, Jack Grealish, James Maddison and Jonny Evans.

Henderson joins Arsenal’s Vivianne Miedema, who was named the FWA Women’s Footballer of the Year earlier this month.

A year ago it was a Manchester City double as Sterling claimed the FWA’s men’s prize and Nikita Parris was named FWA Women’s Footballer of the Year.

The Footballer of the Year trophy has been awarded since 1948 when Sir Stanley Matthews was its first recipient.

Jordan Henderson, despite only just recovering from a knee injury, received the Premier League trophy from Reds legend Sir Kenny Dalglish at a near-empty Anfield.

He was also named the England national team’s Player of the Year in January 2020.

Henderson has registered four goals and five assists in a league campaign in which Liverpool have only tasted defeat on three occasions and his instrumental contribution has now been recognised by football writers across the country.

Many doubted he would ever achieve the feat over players like Kevin De Bruyne who has had a fantastic season as well but Henderson has risen tall.