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London Football Awards 2020: Who are the nominees?

Photo Courtesy for London Football Awards

By Callum Room & Hal Fish 

One of the most prestigious charity events of the footballing calendar, the London Football Awards, have revealed their nominations for the awards ceremony on March 5th at the Roundhouse in Camden.

The awards were set up to support the charity ‘Willow’ which was founded by Bob Wilson and his wife Megs, to support seriously ill 16-40-year-olds in order to fulfil uplifting and unforgettable special days.

Presented by Dermot O’Leary, in front of a star-studded audience, the evening boasts nine different awards categories.

Photo Courtesy of London Football Awards

Premier League Player of the Year

Chelsea teammates Tammy Abraham and Jorginho are both nominated for Premier League Player of the Year with ex-blue Gary Cahill nominated alongside Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and last year’s winner from Tottenham Hotspur Heung-Min Son.

Women’s Player of the Year

Arsenal and Chelsea dominate the Women’s Player of the Year category with the nominees divided between the two clubs. Last year’s award winner Vivianne Miedema makes the list once more, this time with Arsenal teammate Beth Mead. For Chelsea, Bethany England, Erin Cuthbert and Magdalena Eriksson are all included.

EFL Player of the Year

Brentford boasts three out of the five nominees for EFL Player of the Year, with their attacking trio of Bryan Mbeumo, Ollie Watkins and Saïd Benrahma up for the award after scoring an impressive 41 league goals between them this season. Fulham’s striker Aleksander Mitrović and Millwall’s Jed Wallace are also nominated after a number of strong performances in the league.

Young Player of the Year (under-21)

The Young Player of the Year (under-21) section is best represented by Chelsea who have Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori all nominated. Arsenal’s exciting Brazilian Gabriel Martinelli makes the list after an eye-catching start to his time in London. And with 12 goals and five assists in the Championship this season, Bryan Mbeumo is rightfully acknowledged.

Photo Courtesy of London Football Awards

Goalkeeper of the Year

Four out of the five nominations for Goalkeeper of the Year are from the Premier League. Watford’s Ben Foster is up for the award, he has kept the most clean sheets in the Premier League from the London clubs so far.  Crystal Palace’s Vicente Guaita, Arsenal’s Bernd Leno and West Ham’s Lukasz Fabiański make up the other three dominations from the top division. David Raya of Brentford is the Championships only representative after keeping 10 clean sheets so far this season.

Manager of the Year 

Chelsea have both Frank Lampard and Emma Hayes nominated for Manager of the Year, while Arsenal’s Joe Montemurro is the other nomination from the Barclay’s Women’s Super League. Roy Hodgson is nominated, having already won the award with Crystal Palace in 2018 and Brentford’s Thomas Frank is the only EFL manager to make the list.

Photo Courtesy of London Football Awards

Goal of the Season 

For the first time, the Goal of the Season award will be decided via a public vote at Londonfootballawards.org

The nominations are as follows:

  • Heung-Min-Son – Tottenham vs. Burnley (7th December 2019)
  • Jordan Ayew – Crystal Palace vs. West Ham United (26th December 2019)
  • N’Golo Kanté – Chelsea vs. Liverpool (22nd September 2019)
  • Sébastian Haller – West Ham United vs. Bournemouth (1st January 2020)
  • Sophie Ingle – Arsenal Women FC vs. Chelsea FC Women (19th January 2020)

The FA ‘For All’ Award

Nominations for the FA ‘For All’ Award:

  • Amateur FA – London Unity League.
  • Middlesex FA – Really Real.
  • Surrey – Inclusive Level 1 Coaching Courses.

Community Project of the Year

Nominations for Community Project of the Year award:

  • AFC Wimbledon Foundation – Active Womble Phippsbridge Summer Scheme
  • Palace for Life Foundation – Divert Programme
  • West Ham United Foundation – Any Old Irons

Queens Park Rangers and Tottenham Hotspur legend Les Ferdinand will also be recognised on the night as he will receive the Outstanding Contribution to London Football award.

Previous winners

Former men’s Player of the Year winners have included the likes of Heung-Min Son, Harry Kane, N’Golo Kanté, Dimitri Payet, and Eden Hazard.

Whilst the previous Women’s winner have been Vivianne Miedema, Jordan Nobbs (twice), Eni Aluko, and Ji-So Yun.

Managers to be recognised in the past have been Mauricio Pochettino (twice), Roy Hodgson, and Antonio Conte.

Nominees of the awards have been selected by an expert judging panel from the worlds of football and sports media. These include former players and major footballing bodies such as Sky Sport, the BBC, The Daily Telegraph, London Evening Standard and talkSPORT.

The Sports Gazette votes are:

 Men’s Player of the Year: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Arsenal

Women’s Player of the Year: Vivianne Miedema, Arsenal

EFL Player of the Year: Ollie Watkins, Brentford

Goalkeeper of the Year: Ben Foster, Watford

Young Player of the Year: Tammy Abraham, Chelsea

Manager of the Year: Thomas Frank, Brentford

Author

  • Callum Room

    Callum Room, 22, is a reporter for the Sports Gazette and a recent history graduate from the University of Leicester. Callum is a fan of many sports, especially football, rugby, tennis and cricket. He is a huge Liverpool supporter and followed them all the way to Madrid last summer. The twenty-two-year-old has played sports all his life, representing his university rugby side as well as competing nationally as a swimmer whilst growing up. He gained his experience writing for the Fansided network Playingfor90 and during an internship with 90min where his football articles were viewed almost one million times. With aspirations to work as a Sports Journalist, Callum is now undertaking a Masters in Sports Journalism at St Mary’s University Twickenham. Follow him on Twitter @CallumRSport.

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