Wayne Rooney Voted England Player Of The Year

Wayne Rooney’s fine form for England has been rewarded after he was voted Nationwide England Player of the Year for 2008.

The award was voted for by England fans via the FA’s website (www.thefa.com) and is the first time that a forward has won the prize.

Rooney appeared in eight of England’s 10 games in 2008, scoring five goals in the process—all in World Cup Qualifiers.

The Manchester United striker netted in the 4-1 victory over Croatia, before striking twice against both Belarus and Kazakhstan in back-to-back qualifiers in October.

The impressive partnership he has formed with Emile Heskey has seemingly brought out the best in Rooney, and he led the scoring charts for European Qualifying with five goals until this weekend when he was overtaken by Belgium’s Wesley Sonck.

However, he will be confident of continuing his hot streak for his country and returning to the top of the goal charts when England take on Ukraine tomorrow night at Wembley.

After his brace against Slovakia at the weekend, Rooney has now scored seven in his last four games for this country and his overall tally stands close to the impressive one-in-two mark, having notched 21 in 49 appearances for the Three Lions.

Gareth Barry came second in the fans vote, recognition for the consistency which saw him as the only outfield player to feature in all 10 England games. Theo Walcott was third, thanks to his stunning hat-trick in Zagreb last September.

Previous Nationwide England Players of the Year

2007     Steven Gerrard

2006     Owen Hargreaves

2005     Frank Lampard

2004     Frank Lampard

2003     David Beckham

*Wayne Rooney also won the wholly unofficial vote here on Bleacher Report, gathering 37% of votes to place ahead of Steven Gerrard and Theo Walcott from my original article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/108290-england-player-of-the-year-2008-who-gets-your-vote