Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/976374
maltatoday WEDNESDAY 2 MAY 2018 Sport 20 LIVERPOOL'S Egyptian for- ward Mohamed Salah has been voted Footballer of the Year by the Football Writers' Asso- ciation (FWA) to complete the double of English soccer's ma- jor individual awards. Salah was chosen as Player of the Year by the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) after an outstanding season in which he has scored 43 goals in all competitions. The 25-year-old is the first African player to win the FWA award which began in 1948. Salah narrowly beat Man- chester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne in a ballot of over 400 FWA members, with the winning margin less than 20 votes. Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane was placed third. "What a race it has been be- tween two players who, in a relatively short time, have reached genuine world class. But Mo Salah is the worthiest of winners. He is also the first African to receive the award and we congratulate him on a magnificent season," FWA Chairman Patrick Barclay said. Salah has helped Liverpool, who are third in the Premier League, into the Champions League semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. The Merseyside club face AS Roma in the second leg in the Italian capital today and lead 5-2 from the opening game at Anfield in which Salah scored twice and set up two other goals. Salah will head to the World Cup in Russia in June to play for Egypt who have been drawn with the hosts, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay in Group A. Other players to receive votes from FWA members were Ser- gio Aguero (Manchester City), Christian Eriksen (Totten- ham), Roberto Firmino (Liv- erpool), Nick Pope (Burnley), David Silva (Manchester City), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City) and Jan Vertonghen (Tot- tenham). The inaugural FWA Wom- en's Footballer of the Year Award was won by Chelsea and England forward Fran Kir- by who was also crowned PFA Women's Player of the Year last month. SPORTTODAY FOOTBALL Salah voted England's Footballer of the Year Liverpool's Mohamed Salah Wembley would remain home of English football, says Khan THE sale of Wembley would be a boost to England's goal of winning a World Cup, the stadium's potential new owner Shahid Khan has said, adding that the iconic venue would re- main the home of English foot- ball under the proposed deal. The US billionaire, who owns the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars, has made an offer to buy Wem- bley from the English Football Association (FA) in a deal re- ported to be worth up to one billion pounds. Under the plan, the FA would keep Wembley as the main venue to host national games and cup matches and Khan said the name of the stadium would not change. "Wembley is the essence, the cradle of English football," Khan told the BBC. "We would very much like for England matches and cup finals to be played at Wembley, that is the DNA. "(The FA) will have a pool of money of about 600 million pounds that can be invested into the core mission of the FA, which is English football and their ultimate goal of winning a World Cup." The 90,000-seater stadium was reopened in 2007 after be- ing rebuilt at a cost of 757 mil- lion pounds on the site of the original ground where England won the World Cup in 1966. Khan, who also owns Cham- pionship side Fulham, said: "Wembley is a great stadium and you want to get it config- ured to hold Super Bowl and World Cup finals." He added that he would look into the possibility of install- ing a roof, and that Chelsea would be "welcome" to use the stadium as their temporary home when they leave Stam- ford Bridge during its redevel- opment, which is expected to begin in 2020. "Personally, I have not spoken to Chelsea, but the CEO of Ful- ham has spoken to his coun- terpart at Chelsea," he said. "It was never an issue to us. Chelsea has been a great club and those relationships go back a long time." Fulham owner Shahid Khan watches from the stand