Haaland & Kerr land FWA Footballer of the Year awards

FWA Footballer of the Year: Erling Haaland cruises to men’s award after record-breaking season for Man City as Chelsea’s Sam Kerr wins women’s for second season running.

Manchester City striker Erling Haaland and Chelsea forward Sam Kerr have scooped the men and women’s FWA Footballer of the Year awards for 2022-23.

Norwegian sensation Haaland has enjoyed a history-making debut season at Manchester City, with the 22-year-old registering 51 goals in all competitions. Of those, 35 have come in the Premier League – a new record for a single top-flight campaign.

Kerr, meanwhile, has remained a talismanic presence for Chelsea, with the 20-goal mark reached once again by the iconic Australian as she seeks to help the Blues to another WSL title triumph. 

The FWA has said on the organisation’s official website: “Haaland won by a huge margin after his sensational debut season in England, scoring 51 goals so far for Manchester City as they aim for a remarkable treble. For a while he was neck and neck with Bukayo Saka in the voting among our 800 or so members, but eventually won by a landslide, polling 72 per cent of the votes, the biggest margin since the Premier League began.

“Chelsea striker Kerr becomes the first back-to-back winner of the Women’s Footballer of the Year. The Australian polled twice as many votes as Rachel Daly of Aston Villa and England, who edged out Chelsea’s Lauren James (four votes). In total 25 different players got votes in the WFOTY poll.”

BREAKING NEWS - Erling Haaland and Sam Kerr are this year’s Footballer of the Year and Women's Footballer of the Year. Congratulations to the @ManCity and @ChelseaFCW
players. More to follow, full details on our website: https://t.co/NkyhxCyToR #FOTY75 pic.twitter.com/GVW7DxYT2s

— The Football Writers' Association (@theofficialfwa) May 12, 2023

 Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard came third in the men’s poll, with City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne fourth and Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford fifth. Haaland and Kerr will receive their awards at a special Footballer of the Year dinner on May 25 which will mark the 75th anniversary of the first prize being handed out to Sir Stanley Matthews back in 1948.