Erling Haaland has set his sights on winning the first treble in Manchester City’s history after being crowned the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year. Haaland, who has scored 52 goals in 51 games for City since his £51 million transfer from Borussia Dortmund last summer, said that he is fully focused on the remaining fixtures against Inter Milan in the Champions League and Manchester United in the FA Cup, and hopes to win both. City have already won the Premier League and are aiming to emulate their city rivals’ achievement of 1999.
Haaland’s win comes after he broke the record for the most Premier League goals in a season with 36, helping Manchester City to secure their third straight title with three games to spare. Speaking to the FWA, the 22-year-old striker said that he likes to live in the moment, taking each game as it comes and not focusing on the future or the past. He added that Pep Guardiola’s approach of taking each game as it comes has helped City to achieve exactly what they set out to achieve this season.
In the women’s category, Chelsea’s Sam Kerr took the award for the second consecutive season, becoming the first player to do so. The Australian striker scored the winning goal in Chelsea’s 1-0 FA Cup final victory over Manchester United earlier this month. She said that winning the award is something she is very proud of, especially given the growth of women’s football in recent years.
Chelsea, who have a two-point lead over Manchester United, will be looking to seal the WSL title with a victory against Reading on Saturday, the final day of the season. Kerr said that while some people may think winning the league is easy, it gets harder every year, and that staying at the top requires hard work and dedication.
Both awards are a testament to the outstanding performances of Haaland and Kerr in their respective leagues. They have played pivotal roles in their team’s success this season and are a credit to the sport. It is clear that they are both driven to achieve more and we can expect them to continue to perform at the highest level next season.
