Jamie Vardy named Football Writers’ Player of Year

Following in the footsteps of team-mate Riyad Mahrez, who won the PFA Player of the Year award a week ago, Jamie Vardy beat his six Leicester City teammates to take the coveted honour home. The 29-year-old striker has scored 24 goals for the club and country so far this season, with 22 of them coming in the league. By winning the award, Vardy also became the first player in Leicester City's history to win the award, which was been running since 1948, and the first Englishman to win it after Scott Parker’s win in 2011.

The Foxes need two more points to guarantee their first top-flight title and will be crowned champions should closest rivals Tottenham Hotspur fail to beat Chelsea on Monday night. Vardy and PFA Player of the Year of the Mahrez have been the two driving forces behind Leicester City's run this season, with the latter scoring 17 goals in 35 appearances in the league this season. Vardy, who became the first player to score in 11 consecutive Premier League matches earlier this season, missed Leicester's last two matches after picking up a red card against West Ham. Tottenham's Harry Kane and Manchester City's Sergio Aguero jumped ahead of Vardy in the goal scoring charts during his absence and now lead the charts with 24 and 23 goals respectively.   

Vardy expressed the award as a great honour and thanked the manager and the team-mates for helping him win it.

“It’s a great honour to win such a prestigious award and to have my name added to a list of previous winners that includes some unbelievable players. Thank you to the Football Writers’ Association and to everyone that voted," Vardy told Football Writers’.com.

“Thank you also to my team-mates, who are the reason I’ve been able to achieve anything.

"It’s been an amazing season for all of us at Leicester, based on the team-work, not individuals, which you can see in the voting. Thanks also to the manager, all the staff and the fans for their support,” he added.

Other players to receive the nominations were Riyad Mahrez, N'Golo Kante, Danny Drinkwater, Kasper Schmeichel, Wes Morgan, Danny Simpson (Leicester City), Tottenham striker Harry Kane and midfielder Dele Alli, West Ham playmaker Dimitri Payet, Manchester City duo Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne as well.