Leicester star wins player of the year award – but this time it’s not Riyad Mahrez
Leicester and England striker Jamie Vardy has been rewarded for a record-breaking watershed campaign by being named Player of the Year by the Football Writers’ Association (FWA).
Vardy scooped 36 per cent of votes to beat Riyad Mahrez, who last week claimed the equivalent award from the Professional Footballers’ Association, and N’Golo Kante in an all-Leicester top three.
The 29-year-old has scored 22 Premier League goals this season and in November set a new top-flight record by hitting the net in 11 consecutive fixtures.
Read more: Title could be worth £250m to Leicester
That form helped to establish Vardy, who was playing for non-league Fleetwood Town four years ago, as a regular in Roy Hodgson’s England squad and a likely selection for this year’s European Championship.
The meteoric rise of a player released by Sheffield Wednesday aged 16 has embodied Leicester’s unlikely march towards a first top-flight title and has even spawned plans for a Hollywood film of his story.
Leicester midfielder Danny Drinkwater, meanwhile, is set to escape further punishment for his reaction to being sent off in the dying stages of Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Manchester United.
Driknkwater was shown a second yellow card four minutes from time as the Foxes missed out on a win they needed to clinch the title. Vardy was given an extra match ban for reacting angrily to a red card against West Ham last month.