5 of the Best Players Never to Have Won Footballer of the Year

After Luis Suarez had scored his 22nd Premier League goal of the season in Liverpool’s 3-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend, his captain Steven Gerrard declared he should definitely win at least one of the Player of the Year awards. 

"If Suarez doesn't win an award this season he'll be the best player ever not to win one,” said Gerrard. 

The English game traditionally hands out two Player of the Year awards, the more prestigious Footballer of the Year award, voted on by members of the Football Writers Association since 1948, and since the 1973-74 season members of the Professional Footballer’s Association have also voted for their own Player of the Year. 

It is debatable whether the Uruguayan striker will win either of these awards this season, facing real competition from both Gareth Bale and Robin van Persie, but if he doesn’t, he certainly won’t be the best player to ever miss out.

Here is a list of five of the best players never to have been voted Player of the Year in English football. 

Peter Schmeichel

It is more than a quarter of a century since a goalkeeper was voted Player of the Year when the brilliant Neville Southall was rewarded for helping Everton win the League title in 1985. 

But Peter Schmeichel deserved to break this barren run for keepers during his eight years at Old Trafford between 1991 and 1999 when he played a major role in Manchester United dominating English football. 

While he never won a Player of the Year award, there is an argument he earned something greater: the title of football’s greatest ever goalkeeper. A poll by Reuters in 2001 found he was considered to be the greatest goalkeeper in the entire history of football ahead of Gordon Banks and Lev Yashin.

In 398 games for United, Schmeichel kept 179 clean sheets and won five Premier Leagues, three FA Cups, a League Cup and the Champions League.

Didier Drogba

At the end of last year, Didier Drogba was overwhelmingly voted Chelsea’s greatest player of all time in a poll of the club’s fans.

However, Drogba never won a Player of the Year award during his eight years in English football, despite scoring 157 goals, winning 10 major trophies and being the Premier League’s top scorer in both the 2006-07 and 2009-10 seasons.

While the histrionics and tendency to go to ground easily could obviously grate, there is no doubt the Ivory Coast striker was an incredible player of rare strength and power.

His greatest asset was he always produced for Chelsea in the biggest games, boasting a record of scoring in all six of the club’s FA Cup and League Cup triumphs while he was there and of course he scored that equaliser and then the subsequent match-winning penalty as Chelsea won their first ever Champions League in Munich last May. 

Paul Scholes

Paul Scholes has long been hailed as the most talented English player of his generation.

He is revered across the world, and feted by many of the world’s finest players; the legendary Zinedine Zidane said "You rarely come across the complete footballer, but Scholes is as close to it as you can get," while Barcelona’s Xavi has said, “Paul Scholes is the best midfielder of the last 20 years.”

However, over nearly two decades he has never won either of the Player of the Year awards, and incredibly has never even been voted Manchester United’s Player of the Year either.

He does have the consolation of being the most decorated English player in the history of football, winning 10 league titles (only Ryan Giggs has won more), as well as three FA Cups, two League Cups, two Champions Leagues, one Intercontinental Cup and one FIFA Club World Cup. 

Peter Beardsley

A generation before Luis Suarez, there was another Liverpool striker imbued with craft and goals who missed out on being voted Player of the Year. 

After signing from Newcastle United for a British record transfer fee of £1.9 million in the summer of 1987, Beardsley played a leading role in arguably Liverpool’s greatest ever side, who went unbeaten for a record 29 games before losing only two games all season and comfortably winning the League title by a nine-point margin. 

Blessed with vision, guile and an ability to make his teammates all around him even better, Beardsley scored at total of 16 goals that season as he linked up brilliantly with John Barnes, John Aldridge and Ray Houghton. 

He would win another league title with Liverpool in 1990, and an FA Cup in 1989, but largely because of his teammate John Barnes, who was Footballer of the Year in 1988 and 1990, and Player of the Year in 1988, an individual award always eluded him. 

Bryan Robson

He might have been known as “Captain Marvel” and hailed as England’s best player during the 1980s, but Bryan Robson missed out on ever winning either of the Player of the Year awards. 

During the best years of his career at Manchester United, probably between 1982 and 1986, the former England captain was the complete midfielder, who could both score goals and dive in to tackles, but it was his failure to bring the League title to Old Trafford that denied him ever winning a personal award. 

During those years, Liverpool and Everton shared the League title between them, and that is reflected in who won both the Player of the Year awards: Ian Rush, Kenny Dalglish, Neville Southall, Gary Lineker and Peter Reid. 

When Robson finally won a League title with Manchester United in 1993 and 1994, he was no more than a bit-part player and in the final two years of his United career.