Parker, who plays in the midfield with London-based team Tottenham Hotspur, played in seven of England’s nine games last year and is now seen as one the squad’s main components. He’s also on the shortlist to take over the England team’s captaincy from John Terry, who had it stripped from him due to allegations of racial abuse.
The 31-year-old Parker garnered 17 per cent of the votes while goalkeeper Joe Hart of Manchester City came in second and Manchester United winger Ashley Young placed third in the ballot. Parker said it’s an honor to win the award and is proud to have his name engraved on the trophy along with some of the best English players in modern history, such as Wayne Rooney, David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, and Frank Lampard. He added that it’s a great feeling to know that the team’s supporters appreciate his efforts.
Most England fans had forgotten about Parker for the past half a decade since his last game for England prior to 2011 came against Croatia back in 2006. However, after being overlooked for five years, former manager Fabio Capello selected him for the squad last year and he’s been a mainstay ever since. Parker said even though he was disappointed at not being chosen to represent his country at the international level for five years he never lost hope.
After being out of the spotlight for so long, Parker’s career has been resurrected over the past couple of seasons. He was named the 2010/2011 winner of the Football Writers' Player of the Year award even though he played for West Ham that season and the team was relegated from the Premier League into the Championship League. He started his career well too and was named the recipient of the Young Player of the Year Award in 2003/04 while playing for Charlton.
In other international soccer news, veteran goalkeeper Petr Cech, who plays for Chelsea of the EPL, was awarded the Player of the Year Award for the Czech Republic on Feb. 27. It was the fifth time the 29-year-old has won the award. Petr Jiracek of Germany’s VfL Wolfsburg club came in second place followed by midfielder Tomas Rosicky of EPL club Arsenal.
Liverpool's Martin Skrtel was named the player of the year in Slovakia for the third time on Feb. 27. The 27-year-old defender beat out Italian-based midfielders Marek Hamsik of Napoli and Genoa’s Juraj Kucka in the voting.
Written by Ian Palmer via FeedCrossing
We are the internet’s premiere content exchange for great sports articles and blog posts. We bring together publishers looking for a great source for sports-related content with writers and websites looking to promote their websites and blogs.
