The National Soccer League Player of the Year was an annual

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

award present to the most outstanding player in Australia's

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its d ...

. The award was established in the NSL's first season in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

and it ran until

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

. The following season it was replaced by the

Johnny Warren Medal The Johnny Warren Medal is awarded to the best player of the Australian national soccer club competition. It was first awarded in the National Soccer League in 1990, and upon the NSL's demise in November 2004, was carried forward into the new na ...

. The inaugural winner was

Jimmy Rooney James Rooney (born 10 December 1945) is a former professional footballer who played as a left winger. Born in Scotland, he represented the Australia national team at international level and was member of the squad at the 1974 FIFA World Cup. ...

of Marconi, who finished second that season. The last winner of the award was Zlatko Nastevski, who played for table-toppers Marconi when he won the award. Bobby Russell and Frank Farina are the only people to have won the award twice. From 1977 until 1985 the vote was purely done by referees. Then, between 1986 and 1988, two winners were announced, one voted by the referees and one voted by the players. In 1989, it was only the players voting.

Winners

* Player-voted award Referee-voted award

Multiple winners

Awards won by club

References

{{National Soccer League National Soccer League (Australia) Awards established in 1977 1977 establishments in Australia Association football player of the year awards Australian soccer trophies and awards