The Chelsea and England striker Fran Kirby has won the inaugural Women’s Footballer of the Year award from the Football Writers’ Association.
The 24-year-old former Reading player has scored 22 goals for the Women’s Super League leaders across all competitions this season.
She secured more than 50% of the vote after a shortlist was drawn up, the FWA said, with the Euro 2017 Golden Boot winner Jodie Taylor finishing second.
Kirby said on the FWA website: “I was really proud to be nominated in the first place but to actually win is a real honour. To be the first recipient of this honour and award is so special.”
The accolade follows two days after Kirby won the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Women’s Player of the Year award.
As well as their WSL title pursuit, Chelsea are chasing silverware in the Women’s FA Cup and face Arsenal in the final of that competition on 5 May.
They will also be hoping to turn around a 3-1 deficit when they play Wolfsburg in Germany on Sunday in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final.
The FWA chairman, Patrick Barclay, said: “I can’t help thinking of our first Footballer Of The Year vote back in 1947, when the winner was one of England’s most admired players of all time, Sir Stanley Matthews.
“Now, after Stan, comes Fran – she’ll always be first in what will become a long list of Women’s Footballers Of The Year.”
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