Friday brings the announcement of the Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year for 2024, a prestigious honor in English soccer and the oldest individual award given out in the sport, dating back to 1948. Last year’s winner was Phil Foden of Manchester City, with Liverpool‘s Mohamed Salah winning it in 2022 and 2018.
This year has seen a number of stars rise to the occasion up and down the Premier League table, even as Liverpool raced to the title under new manager Arne Slot. So, ahead of the announcement, ESPN’s writers make their own selections.
GAB MARCOTTI: Mohamed Salah, Liverpool
This is an open-and-shut case. Barring some sort of cataclysm, he will lead the Premier League in goals (he’s five clear of Newcastle’s Alexander Isak) and assists (he’s seven clear of Jacob Murphy). It will be only the third time this has happened in the 34-year history of the Premier League.
The last guy to do it? Well, Salah himself, back in 2021-22.
And, of course, his club, Liverpool, will win the Premier League by a wide margin. No need to over-complicate things: when you score more than anyone (by a lot), when you provide more assists than anyone (by a lot) and when your team wins the league (by a lot), you probably deserve to be Player of the Year.
You want to bring intangibles? OK, how about the fact that until last month, his contract was set to expire at the end of the season? Think that’s not a mega-distraction? Having to negotiate with a club (and by extension, a fan base) where you spent eight seasons and that you’ve come to love and consider home all season long? And not letting it affect performance on the pitch or relationships with teammates and club officials? (Yes, they’re all smiles now, but like any negotiation, you imagine it wasn’t all smooth sailing, otherwise it wouldn’t have dragged out until April.)
Salah hasn’t just been the best player on the best team, but a consummate professional throughout. And for that reason, he’s my Player of the Year.
The easy answer to this would be Salah or Virgil van Dijk, who have both been crucial to Liverpool’s Premier League title win, but the Player of the Year shouldn’t necessarily be the best player in the best team and that’s why I am going for Bruno Fernandes.
Yes, I can hear the howls of derision — mostly from my colleagues — but let’s just consider how good Bruno has been during Manchester United’s worst league season for 50 years, playing in their worst team since the club was relegated in 1974.
Going into the Europa League semifinal second-leg against Athletic Club on Thursday, Bruno had scored 19 goals and registered 18 assists in 52 games this season. Without his contribution, United would have been eliminated from the Europa League weeks ago, and would possibly even be in a relegation scrap at the bottom of the Premier League.
The true measure of a player is how they perform in adversity and Bruno has stepped up — big time — when so many of his teammates have shrunk in the face of the challenge, and left it to their captain to save them from embarrassment more than once.
Bruno has been on the end of criticism (often from former players) in the past about his leadership skills and petulant behaviour at times on the pitch, but he has grown into a real leader this season and carried United almost single-handedly to the brink of European success and a return to the Champions League. That’s why he won my vote as Footballer of the Year. — Mark Ogden
JAMES OLLEY: Mohamed Salah, Liverpool
There’s being innovative, and then there’s being contrary for the sake of it. Sometimes the obvious answer is the right one.
It is probably too easy to normalise Liverpool’s pre-eminence given how long they’ve been clear at the top of the table, but let’s not forget how few people expected this after Jurgen Klopp left. I certainly didn’t. Incoming manager Arne Slot needed the big characters in the dressing room to step up and give him credibility as Klopp’s successor. Salah, along with Van Dijk — a worthy rival for this award — has done just that. His 46 goal involvements is one short of the all-time Premier League record, including nine match-winning goals.
At the time of writing, Arsenal have conceded four fewer league goals but Liverpool have scored 17 more. Arsenal have drawn 13 games because they did not possess a match-winner of their own, with Bukayo Saka absent for so much of the season and yet to prove himself year-on-year as a game-defining great. Saka is on the way there, but Salah has occupied that status for years and, perhaps this season more than ever, he has made the difference.
You can keep your Salahs and Van Dijks from the best team in the country by a mile. You can keep Fernandes (is this a joke, Mark?), with Man United 15th in the table (!!). You can keep all the other contenders — the likes of Matheus Cunha, Isak, William Saliba, Bryan Mbeumo and others — because the player of the year in England can only be Chris Wood.
What the New Zealander has achieved at the age of 33 is no short of exceptional. Twenty-two goal involvements (19 goals, three assists) in 31 starts for a team like Nottingham Forest is incredible. He has been decisive every 118 minutes and he’s the reason why the City Ground might see Champions League football next season. Forest are a counter-attacking team as well, making it even more impressive that Wood has been putting up these kind of numbers for a side not playing to his strengths. (Spoiler here: pace is not his main attribute.)
As a football purist myself and a Parisian, I love flair and elegant players who are a pleasure to watch. It is not what Wood is about, but the guy is enjoying the best season of his career and it deserves a lot of love and recognition.
Back at the start of the season, before Liverpool’s opener away at Ipswich Town, Slot’s side had just been rejected by Real Sociedad‘s Martín Zubimendi. It left a No. 6-sized hole in their team. The consensus at the time was that Liverpool would need to delve back into the transfer market to find a ready-made solution, but Slot had other plans.
In Klopp’s final season as Liverpool manager, Gravenberch found himself more often than not watching on from the bench, starting just 12 league matches in the 2023-24 campaign. Klopp favoured Wataru Endo in that anchor role, and there were suggestions Gravenberch would have to look for a new club in order to push on in his career But Slot turned to Gravenberch as their specialist No. 6, and the impact was remarkable.
If you’re assessing the crux of the Liverpool team that won the league this season, then you’re looking at the spine of Van Dijk, Gravenberch and Salah.
Salah was exceptional, but Gab has and James have already mowed that lawn and Rob has opted for Van Dijk, so it’s time for Gravenberch to be recognised.
The Netherlands international went from outsider, to the answer to Liverpool’s midfield conundrum. He made himself indispensable, and he’s a major reason behind why Liverpool dominated the league this season.
BETH LINDOP: Mohamed Salah, Liverpool
I mean, there’s only one right answer, isn’t there? Liverpool have been far and away the best team in the Premier League, and so it’s only right this individual accolade goes to the player who has been most influential in their pursuit of a 20th league title.
After a disappointing end to last season, Salah took to social media and sent an impassioned message to Liverpool supporters, vowing to “fight like hell” to bring more success to Anfield. Nearly 12 months on, it’s fair to say the Egypt international has made good on that promise, having so far notched an impressive 28 goals and 18 assists in the top flight.
His sheer will to win has, at times, dragged his team over the line in difficult games, and he has sent a host of records tumbling, moving up to third on Liverpool’s list of all-time top scorers and becoming the highest scoring foreign player in Premier League history.
While honourable mentions go to Van Dijk and Gravenberch for their commendable efforts, Salah is the standout choice.
ROB DAWSON: Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool
Individual awards shouldn’t always be based on the numbers of goals and assists. It’s important to recognise the contribution of some of the other players who are key to successful teams.
At Liverpool — the Premier League’s best this season — two of those are Van Dijk and Gravenberch. Salah steals the headlines week after week because he’s Liverpool’s best attacking player, but what Slot and his players have been able to achieve would not have been possible without the Dutch pair.
Van Dijk first. He’s the best defender in the league and his leadership has been crucial during the transition from Klopp to Slot. It also won’t have been easy to continually set the standard on the pitch and in the dressing room while his own future has been up in the air.
Gravenberch has been impressive in a different way. Many Liverpool fans would have told you last summer that signing a central midfielder was crucial to their campaign. It didn’t happen, but rather than Gravenberch simply filling a hole in the team, he’s excelled in one of the most important roles on the pitch to a point that Liverpool have been able to win the title. That’s a phenomenal achievement for a player who was almost being written off a year ago.
Van Dijk just edges it in the Player of the Year vote because of his overall influence on and off the pitch, but Gravenberch runs him close, with an honourable mention to Salah.
SAM MARSDEN: Mohamed Salah, Liverpool
Gang, let’s not normalise what Salah has achieved this season, for he is the person we should blame for the lack of a title race in the Premier League. Through the first 28 games, he scored 27 goals and created 17 more. To put that in Fantasy Premier League parlance: with 10 games still to be played, he had already broken the record for a points haul in a single season (breaking his own record set in the 2017-18 campaign).
Salah has always scored goals since joining Liverpool eight years ago, but this season has seen him create more than ever for his teammates, too. He told TNT Sports in February he ranks this as his best season ever “because I make the players around me better.” There are plenty of examples of that, too: the double nutmeg before setting up Cody Gakpo against West Ham in December, the perfectly weighted pass for Luis Díaz against the same opponents last month and 16 more assists this term. Two more and he will match Kevin De Bruyne’s assist record for a single Premier League season.
He has been consistently brilliant, and has been head and shoulders ahead of the field.
