Liverpool's Mohamed Salah named Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year

Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah has won the 2018 Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year award after a phenomenal first season at Anfield after joining for £34m last summer.
Salah returned to England in June, two years after a dismal spell at Chelsea from 2014 to 2015, which prompted mass mockery over the club-record fee Liverpool paid to sign him from Serie A club AS Roma.
 
There was clear improvement in Italy from his time at Chelsea, netting 34 goals in 83 appearances compared to the two in 19 he achieved in London, but no one expected to impact he would make on Jurgen Klopp’s side throughout the 2017-18 season.
The now-proclaimed ‘Egyptian King’ is the leading goalscorer in Europe’s top five leagues this term with 43 goals in 47 matches and is being heavily touted to be a front runner for the 2018 Ballon d’Or award if his stunning form is to continue.
Salah has also helped Liverpool become one foot away from the UEFA Champions League Final after being the first African to score more than eight goals in a single European campaign with 10 goals in 11 games, on top of five assists.
Previous winners of the FWA Footballer of the Year award over the past few years have included the likes of N’Golo Kanté, Jamie Vardy and Eden Hazard, and Salah is just the third Liverpool player to win in the Premier League era – after Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez.
It’s not the only award Salah has won this season; he was named the Professional Footballers’ Association Player of the Year, as voted by players in the top four leagues of English football, last month.
The race for the PFA Player of the Year award was considered to be a two-horse one alongside Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne, who has been greatly influential in the runaway Premier League champions’ remarkable season.
This was absolutely the case for the Football Writers’ Association award as well, with Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne received a staggering total of 90% of all votes from members of the Football Writers’ Association.
Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane came third and other players to be voted for by members of the FWA included: Manchester City’s Sergio Agüero, David Silva and Raheem Sterling, Spurs duo Christian Eriksen and Jan Vertonghen, as well as Salah’s teammate Roberto Firmino and Nick Pope of Burnley.
Patrick Barclay, chairman of the Football Writers’ Association, has admitted that this year’s vote was the “toughest call since 1968-69” when Manchester City’s Tony Book and Derby County’s Dave Mackay battled it out for the award.
Speaking after Salah was announced as the first ever African winner, Barclay said: “Right up to the last week or so we thought it might happen again, so strong was the support for Kevin de Bruyne. But Mo Salah’s relentless match-winning form, exemplified by his two great goals against Roma, seems to have swung the vote by a very narrow margin.”
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