Mohamed Salah and Beth Mead win supporters’ accolades

Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah was named Men’s Player of the Year at the Football Supporters’ Federation Awards in partnership with Virgin Media, which took place tonight in London.

With more than 366,000 votes cast, the FSF Awards are the largest supporter-led awards in the UK and Salah topped the fans’ vote, holding off competition from runner-up Eden Hazard. Raheem Sterling, Virgil Van Dijk, Harry Maguire and Sergio Agüero completed the shortlist.

Mohamed Salah said: “Thank you for this award, it means so much to me because it was voted for by supporters

“Usually I share any awards with my teammates and all the staff at Liverpool, but on this occasion I would like also to dedicate it to the Liverpool fans for their incredible support. Thank you. ”

Salah is the third Liverpool player to scoop the award in six years. Previous winners of the FSF Men’s Player of the Year are Harry Kane, Philippe Coutinho, Alexis Sanchez, Sergio Agüero and Luis Suarez.

Elsewhere Arsenal forward Beth Mead won Women’s Player of the Year. 

This is the third year that the FSF are celebrating the Women’s Player of the Year – the previous winners were Sari van Veenendaal and Jill Scott. This year’s shortlist was compiled by a panel convened by leading women’s football magazine She Kicks picking stand-out performers of the last 12 months.

Virgin Media managing director Jeff Dodds said:

“At Virgin Media we share the belief that fans matter and these awards are a celebration of the best in the game – both on and off the pitch.

“We offer our congratulations to all the winners and shortlisted nominees in this year’s awards who have enthralled and entertained supporters across the country over the last 12 months.”

Elsewhere Gary Neville picked up the trophy for Pundit of the Year for the second year in a row, with newcomer Alex Scott admirably finishing as runner-up.

In total 10 categories were open to a public vote, including the player and pundit categories, while five awards (Away Day, Club Podcast, Fans for Diversity, Fanzine, National Game Community Award and Supporter Liaison Officer of the Year) were decided by an FSF panel.

The winners of the 2018 FSF Awards in partnership with Virgin Media:

Men’s Player of the Year

Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

Women’s Player of the Year:

Beth Mead (Arsenal)

Away Day of the Year:

Preston North End

Fan Media of the Year:

Arseblog

Club Podcast of the Year:

From The Rookery End

Commentator of the Year:

Martin Tyler

Fans for Diversity Award:

Proud Lilywhites

Fanzine of the Year:

PopularStand

Newspaper of the Year:

The Guardian

Online Media of the Year:

Football365.com

Podcast of the Year:

Football Weekly

Pundit of the Year:

Gary Neville

Radio Show of the Year:

606 

Supporter Liaison Officer of the Year:

Tony Barrett (Liverpool)

Writer of the Year:

Barney Ronay

National Game Community Award:

Curzon Ashton FC