PFA Fans' Player of the Year

Steven Gerrard of Liverpool was the inaugural winner of this award in 2001

The ESPN Professional Footballers' Association Fans' Player of the Year (often called the PFA Fans' Player of the Year, or simply the Fans' Player of the Year) award is given to footballers in the top four flights of English football, the Premier League, the Championship, League One and League Two.

The shortlist is compiled by the members of the Professional Footballers' Association (the PFA), and then the winner is voted for by the fans of the league. The prize is relatively highly regarded as it is voted for by the fans.

The award was first given in 2001, and was won by Steven Gerrard, Chris Bart-Williams, Brian Tinnion and Bobby Zamora, of Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, Bristol City and Brighton & Hove Albion respectively. The most recent winners of the award are Robin van Persie, Jay Rodriguez, José Semedo and Lewis Grabban, of Arsenal, Burnley, Sheffield Wednesday and Rotherham United
(on loan) respectively.

List of winners

Highlighted players are winning the award for a second time.

2001

League	Player	Club	Notes
FA Premiership	Steven Gerrard	Liverpool	First winner of the award in the FA Premiership Winning the award in addition to the Young Player of the Year award
First Division	Chris Bart-Williams	Nottingham Forest	First winner of the award in the First Division
Second Division	Brian Tinnion	Bristol City	First winner of the award in the Second Division
Third Division	Bobby Zamora	Brighton & Hove Albion	First winner of the award in the Third Division

2002

League	Player	Club	Notes
FA Premiership	Ruud van Nistelrooy	Manchester United	First winner of the award from outside of England First winner of the award from outside of Great Britain First winner of the award from outside of the United Kingdom First winner of the award from outside of the British Isles Winning the award in addition to the Players' Player of the Year award
First Division	Dean Sturridge	Wolverhampton Wanderers
Second Division	Bobby Zamora	Brighton & Hove Albion	First two-time winner of the award First two-time winner of the award in two different leagues
Third Division	Matthew Taylor	Luton Town

2003

League	Player	Club	Notes
FA Premiership	Thierry Henry	Arsenal	Winning the award in addition to the Players' Player of the Year award Winning the award in addition to the FWA Footballer of the Year award
First Division	Linvoy Primus	Portsmouth
Second Division	Robert Earnshaw	Cardiff City
Third Division	Leon Britton	Swansea City

2004

League	Player	Club	Notes
FA Premiership	Thierry Henry	Arsenal	First winner of the award for two consecutive seasons First player to win three awards for two consecutive seasons Winning the award in addition to the Players' Player of the Year award Winning the award in addition to the FWA Footballer of the Year award
First Division	Darren Huckerby	Norwich City
Second Division	Neil Moss	Bournemouth
Third Division	Lee Harper	Northampton Town

2005

League	Player	Club	Notes
FA Premier League	Frank Lampard	Chelsea	Winning the award in addition to the FWA Footballer of the Year award
Championship	Paul McKenna	Preston North End
League One	Keith Southern	Blackpool
League Two	Adam Barrett	Southend United

2006

League	Player	Club	Notes
FA Premier League	Wayne Rooney	Manchester United	Winning the award in addition to the Young Player of the Year award
Championship	Kevin Doyle	Reading
League One	Darryl Flahavan	Southend United
League Two	Karl Hawley	Carlisle United

2007

League	Player	Club	Notes
Premier League	Cristiano Ronaldo	Manchester United	First player to win all four main awards in the same year First player to win all three PFA awards in the same year Winning the award in addition to the Players' Player of the Year award Winning the award in addition to the FWA Footballer of the Year award Winning the award in addition to the Young Player of the Year award
Championship	Matthew Murray	Wolverhampton Wanderers
League One	Billy Sharp	Scunthorpe United
League Two	Lee Peacock	Swindon Town

2008

League	Player	Club	Notes
Premier League	Cristiano Ronaldo	Manchester United	Winning the award in addition to the Players' Player of the Year award Winning the award in addition to the FWA Footballer of the Year award
Championship	James Beattie	Sheffield United
League One	Jay Simpson	Millwall (on loan from Arsenal)	First winner of award whilst on loan at another club
League Two	Jack Lester	Chesterfield

2009

League	Player	Club	Notes
Premier League	Steven Gerrard	Liverpool	Winning the award in addition to the FWA Footballer of the Year award
Championship	Marcus Tudgay	Sheffield Wednesday
League One	Jermaine Beckford	Leeds United
League Two	Jordan Rhodes	Brentford (On loan from Ipswich Town)

2010

League	Player	Club	Notes
Premier League	Wayne Rooney	Manchester United	Winning the award in addition to the Players' Player of the Year award Winning the award in addition to the FWA Footballer of the Year award
Championship	Graham Dorrans	West Bromwich Albion
League One	Rickie Lambert	Southampton
League Two	Kasper Schmeichel	Notts County

2011

League	Player	Club	Notes
Premier League	Raul Meireles	Liverpool
Championship	Danny Graham	Watford
League One	Peter Clarke	Huddersfield Town
League Two	Cody McDonald	Gillingham

2012

League	Player	Club	Notes
Premier League	Robin van Persie	Arsenal	Winning the award in addition to the Players' Player of the Year award Winning the award in addition to the FWA Footballer of the Year award
Championship	Jay Rodriguez	Burnley
League One	José Semedo	Sheffield Wednesday
League Two	Lewis Grabban	Rotherham United

2015

Sánchez the winner in 2015

League	Player	Club	Notes
Premier League	Alexis Sánchez	Arsenal	First winner of the award from outside Europe In addition to winning Player of the Year at the inaugural Facebook Football Awards

2016

League	Player	Club	Notes
Premier League	Riyad Mahrez	Leicester City	Winning the award in addition to the Players' Player of the Year award
Championship	Daniel Ayala	Middlesbrough

Breakdown of winners

Winners by club

	Club	Premier League	Championship/First Division	League One/Second Division	League Two/Third Division
1	Manchester United	5 (2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010)	0	0	0
2	Arsenal	4 (2003, 2004, 2012, 2015)	0	0	0
3	Liverpool	3 (2001, 2009, 2011)	0	0	0
4	Chelsea	1 (2005)	0	0	0
5	Leicester City	1 (2016)	0	0	0
5	Wolverhampton Wanderers	0	2 (2002, 2007)	0	0
6	Watford	0	1 (2011)	0	0
7	West Bromwich Albion	0	1 (2010)	0	0
8	Sheffield Wednesday	0	1 (2009)	0	0
9	Sheffield United	0	1 (2008)	0	0
10	Reading	0	1 (2006)	0	0
11	Preston North End	0	1 (2005)	0	0
12	Norwich City	0	1 (2004)	0	0
13	Portsmouth	0	1 (2003)	0	0
14	Nottingham Forest	0	1 (2001)	0	0
14	Middlesbrough	0	1 (2016)	0	0
15	Huddersfield Town	0	0	1 (2011)	0
16	Southampton	0	0	1 (2010)	0
17	Leeds United	0	0	1 (2009)	0
18	Southend United	0	0	1 (2006)	1 (2005)
19	Brighton & Hove Albion	0	0	1 (2002)	1 (2001)
20	Millwall	0	0	1 (2008)	0
21	Scunthorpe United	0	0	1 (2007)	0
22	Blackpool	0	0	1 (2005)	0
23	Bournemouth	0	0	1 (2004)	0
24	Cardiff City	0	0	1 (2003)	0
25	Bristol City	0	0	1 (2001)	0
26	Gillingham	0	0	0	1 (2011)
27	Notts County	0	0	0	1 (2010)
28	Brentford	0	0	0	1 (2009)
29	Chesterfield	0	0	0	1 (2008)
30	Swindon Town	0	0	0	1 (2007)
31	Carlisle United	0	0	0	1 (2006)
32	Northampton Town	0	0	0	1 (2004)
33	Swansea City	0	0	0	1 (2003)
34	Luton Town	0	0	0	1 (2002)

Winners by country

	Country	Premier League	Championship/First Division	League One/Second Division	League Two/Third Division
1	England	5 (2001, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010)	9 (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009), 2011)	10 (2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010), 2011)	10 (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009), 2011)
2	Portugal	3 (2007, 2008, 2011)	0	1 (2012)	0
3	France	2 (2003, 2004)	0	0	0
4	Netherlands	2 (2002, 2012)	0	0	0
5	Chile	1 (2015)	0	0	0
6	Algeria	1 (2016)	0	0	0
7	Republic of Ireland	0	1 (2006)	0	0
8	Scotland	0	1 (2010)	0	0
9	Spain	0	1 (2016)	0	0
10	Wales	0	0	1 (2003)	0
11	Denmark	0	0	0	1 (2010)

External links

• The Official Website of the Professional Footballer's Association
• Vote in the Official PFA Fans' Player Award