Gareth Bale named Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year

Gareth Bale has been named as the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year.

Bale was named the PFA Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year on Sunday and he has now added the Football Writers’ award to his list of honours.

The Welshman has been an instrumental figure for Tottenham this season and he won over 50% of the votes with Manchester United’s Robin Van Persie finishing second.

Between they took over 90% of the votes with Chelsea’s Juan Mata third.

“It is the oldest award of its kind, it was awarded in 1947, and anyone who makes a living writing about football is eligible to join the association and they vote every year for the Footballer of the Year who gets the Stanley Matthews trophy,” the FWA’s Andy Dunn told Sky Sports News.

“The race became very close. At one point earlier in the season there was a feeling that Luis Suarez would possibly be involved but it turned out to be between Gareth Bale and Robin van Persie.

“In the end we had a record turnout. Almost 92% of members voted and Gareth Bale got 53% of those votes, with Robin Van Persie 43%. Between them they hovered up 96% of the votes.

“It was clearly a two-horse race which went right to the end with Van Persie getting more support after his hat-trick against Aston Villa.

“It was a case of one & two and the rest nowhere, but third was Juan Mata.”