The London Football Awards are set to take place on the 27th of February 2025 at the Home of Football itself, Wembley Stadium. It will be the eleventh edition of the awards since they the inaugural ceremony of 2015.
This year, some fantastic players have been included in all categories and each and every one of the names that were selected have done exceptionally well to beat out their competition to even be nominated.
Premier League Player of the Year
First on the list is Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, recipient of Young Player of the Year at last year’s awards who has continued his brilliance since winning, including at the Euros where he assisted in the semifinal before netting the equaliser in the final loss.
Forwards Bryan Mbeumo and Mikkel Damsgaard of Brentford have been in scintillating form this season, alongside unnominated Yoane Wissa and rightfully deserve to be picked alongside Palmer.
Defenders Gabriel and Antonee Robinson, of Arsenal and Fulham respectively, round out the list, with Gabriel looking imperious in Arsenal’s defence this season, and Robinson being the premier flying fullback from a London-based club this campaign.
WSL Player of the Year
Starting with Spurs, captain Bethany England has scored seven goals in the league so far this season, second only to Manchester City star Khadija “Bunny” Shaw, and helped Spurs to the League Cup quarter finals.
Arsenal have two nominees in the form of Alessia Russo, who is tied for league goals with England, as well as netting four in the Champions League this season. Frida Maanum is the other nominee for the Gunners, who has scored just one goal less than Russo despite being a midfielder, and even sometimes a defender.
Chelsea, current WSL leaders, have two on the list, with Norwegian Guro Reiten, nominated for the second year in a row also on seven league goals with Russo and England, as well as Swedish Women’s Player of the Year Johanna Rytting Kaneryd who is having a campaign to remember under Sonia Bompastor at Kingsmeadow.
EFL Player of the Year
Two players of Spurs heritage make it into the last of the POTY awards, with Japhet Tanganga of Millwall and Jamie Donley of Leyton Orient being listed. Tanganga has been part of the best defence outside of the top three in the Championship at the time of writing and Donley has been in fine form for The O’s on loan from Spurs, including scoring a wonder goal against Manchester City in the FA Cup recently.
Dropping down to League Two, Wimbledon’s Matty Stevens and Bromley’s Michael Creek also make the list. Stevens is currently the league’s joint top scorer on 15, with Creek just one behind with 14 but one more assist than Stevens. Rounding out the inclusions is Watford’s Georgian midfielder Giorgi Chakvetadze.
Young Players of the Year
For the women, incumbent Chelsea’s Aggie Beever-Jones has been nominated for the second successive year alongside fellow Blue, although on loan at Crystal Palace, Lexi Potter and Arsenal’s Michelle Agyemang, on loan at Brighton.
In the men’s category, Arsenal have two names in the running as Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri are nominated alongside North London rivals Spurs’ Archie Gray, new Crystal Palace signing Romain Esse and Watford’s Rocco Vata.
Goalkeeper of the Year
Representing the superb shot stoppers this year, we have three Premier League keepers, with Arsenal’s 23/24 Golden Glove winner David Raya, Crystal Palace’s Dean Henderson and Brentford’s Dutch number one Mark Flekken.
Representing the female keepers is Hannah Hampton of Chelsea, who has the most WSL clean sheets this season, conceding only six goals. Josh Keeley, fellow Leyton Orient loanee from Spurs alongside Jamie Donley, has also been nominated.
Manager of the Year
Once again the only female inclusion is from Chelsea Women, as Sonia Bompastor sits at the top of the WSL table unbeaten, having won twelve and only drawn one of their thirteen games so far.
From the Premier League, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta and Brentford’s Thomas Frank are nominated, having both enjoyed good campaigns as their teams sit second and eleventh, respectively.
From the EFL, Leyton Orient boss Richie Wellens has guided his team to within touching distance of the playoffs, currently sat one place and two points outside of them. As well as Wellens, Bromley boss Andy Woodman has also been nominated.
Community Project of the Year
Brentford’s “Bee a Hero” campaign aimed to raise awareness about the need for blood donors and influence those who had never done so before to give blood, as well as inviting people to find out their blood type before Brentford’s game with Ipswich in October.
Second on the list is QPR’s Community Trust Female Refugee Project which aims to improving women’s “mental health, reduce their social isolation and increase their participation in sport and physical activity through football.”
Finally, we have Charlton’s Live Well Hospital Discharge Program has also been nominated, which aims to help recently discharged hospital patients lower their chances of readmittance and increase their quality of life.
There is also a Goal of the Season category which voting for has not begun yet. All of these players, managers and causes would be worthy winners, and whoever gets their hands on these accolades will be deserving of acommll the praise that will rightly come with it.
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