Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) today announced that Socceroo defenders Scott Chipperfield and Shane Lowry have been respectively nominated as the PFA Footballer and Young Footballer of the month for April.
Chipperfield and Lowry are the final monthly nominees and join eight previously nominated players in their respective categories. Each monthly nominee is now likely to be amongst the final nominees for the PFA Footballer of the Year Awards which will be presented with the support of LUCRF Super at the Australian Football Awards held later this year. The PFA Awards Committee will meet before the Australian Football Awards to review each of the monthly nominees, consider the FIFA World Cup performances and select the final nominees for the PFA Footballers of the Year awards which will consist of between 5 and 12 players in each category.
Socceroo veteran Chipperfield has been in outstanding form this season, scoring 13 goals in 27 games for FC Basel in both the Swiss Super League and the UEFA Cup. The versatile 34 year old has scored 4 of these goals in his last 4 outings from midfield for Basel. Chipperfield has also figured in 2 Socceroos matches this season and will undoubtedly be a key player for Australia at the 2010 World Cup.
Emerging Socceroo star Lowry has been in fine form this season at club level. Lowry is currently contracted to Aston Villa however he played most of the season on loan at Plymouth Argyle and Leeds United. The 20 year old started 14 times for Plymouth and 11 for Leeds in both teams’ backlines. The Irish born left back was recently named in the 28 man Socceroos squad that travelled to South Africa last week.
Each monthly nominee was made by the PFA Awards Committee based on performances so far this season for club and/or country. The Committee consists of a wide range of football experts both former professional players and leading football journalists, including Francis Awaritefe, Dave Davutovic, Craig Foster, Andrew Harper, Stan Lazaridis, Michael Lynch, Paul Okon, Andrew Orsatti, Paul Trimboli, Tony Vidmar and David Zdrilic. PFA Chief Executive Brendan Schwab is the non-voting Chair of the Committee and PFA Player Relations Executive James Johnson is the non-voting Secretary of the Committee.
The final monthly nominations are:
Month
PFA Footballer of the Month
PFA Young Footballer of the Month
August
Jason Culina
Rhys Williams
September
Josh Kennedy
Adama Traore
October
Mark Schwarzer
Ben Kantarovski
November
Harry Kewell
Tommy Oar
December
Mark Bresciano
Dario Vidosic
January
Tim Cahill
Robbie Kruse
February
Carlos Hernandez
Matthew Leckie
March
Simon Colosimo
Mitch Langerak
April
Scott Chipperfield
Shane Lowry