Sam Kerr wins top football writers' award - again

By Paul Lagan and FWA

Sam Kerr wins top football writers' award - again.

She and Erling Haaland are the Footballers of the Year.

Chelsea striker Kerr becomes the first back-to-back winner of the Women's Footballer of the Year.

The Australian polled twice as many votes as Rachel Daly of Aston Villa and England, who edged out Chelsea's Lauren James. In total 25 different players got votes in the WFOTY poll.

Haaland won by a huge margin after his sensational debut season in England, scoring 51 goals so far for Manchester City as they aim for a remarkable treble. For a while he was neck and neck with Bukayo Saka in the voting among 800 or so members, but eventually won by a landslide, polling 72 per cent of the votes, the biggest margin since the Premier League began.

Saka's Arsenal colleague Martin Odegaard came third in the polling, with Kevin De Bruyne of City fourth and Manchester United's Marcus Rashford fifth. 14 other players received votes

Both players will receive their awards at the Landmark Hotel London on Thursday, May 25 at a special Footballer of the Year dinner, marking the 75th anniversary of the award, first won by Sir Stanley Matthews in 1948. More details on the history of the award and past winners can be found on www.footballwriters.co.uk