Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) Champion Kimon Taliadoros today presented Matildas’ legend Cheryl Salisbury with an honorary PFA Women’s Footballer of the Year Medal before the Jets A-League Round 5 fixture against Brisbane Roar.
The medal features an image of Cheryl in action for the Matildas to recognise her remarkable achievements as a player and her contribution to the game.
The inaugural award will be presented at the Australian Football Awards gala to be held on 7 October 2010 in conjunction with Football Federation Australia.
PFA Chief Executive Brendan Schwab commended Cheryl on her outstanding service to Australian football.
“Cheryl’s achievements in the game stand alone,” said Schwab. “In a career of many highlights that included 151 internationals and almost 40 goals as a central defender, she led the Matildas to the ¼ finals of the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup, at Olympic Football tournaments and was regularly selected for the FIFA World XI.”
“Cheryl’s off field influence is just as impressive with her leadership and commitment to Women’s football leaving a legacy for our next generation of female stars. Cheryl’s determination to succeed in what was a challenging environment for her sport is something that we can all draw inspiration from. She also played a key role in ensuring that our elite women footballers came under the umbrella of the PFA,” Schwab added.
Cheryl joins fellow Australian football legends, Joe Marston, the late Johnny Warren and Harry Kewell by having her image featured on a PFA award (Joe and Johnny on the PFA Footballer of the Year Medal and Harry on the PFA Harry Kewell Medal for the best footballer U23).
All female PFA members will now be invited to vote on a 3, 2, 1 basis to determine the best female footballer of 2009/2010.
The Australian Football Awards also incorporate the Football Federation Australia (FFA) awards which recognise the entire football family at a professional and non professional level. The professional category includes FFA Footballer of the Year and FFA U20 Footballer of the Year awards for both men and women, honoring on field excellence and off field professionalism of Australian professional football players. The non professional category includes a team, volunteer, coach and referee award.