Watford Football Club Watford Football Club is an English professional football club based in Watford, Hertfordshire. They play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club’s original foundation is 1881, aligned with that of its antecede ...

are an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club, from

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. Founded in 1881 as Watford Rovers, the club has competed in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

since 1920 and since the 2015–16 season have competed in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

. First introduced by the '' Watford Observer'' in the 1972–73 season, the Watford F.C. Player of the Season award is voted for annually by supporters of the club. It recognises the best overall performance by an individual player through the season. Winners were originally presented with the ''Watford Observer Trophy'', but since 2016–17 the award has been named the '' Graham Taylor Player of the Season Award'', after the club's former manager.

Goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Andy Rankin won the initial award in the 1972–73 season, ahead of

Colin Franks Colin James Franks (born 16 April 1951) is an English former footballer. At the start of his career he played predominantly as a midfielder, but he was increasingly used as a defender towards the end of his career. Born in Wembley, Franks star ...

and

Duncan Welbourne Duncan Welbourne (28 July 1940 – 14 January 2019) was an English professional football player, coach and manager. Early life Born in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, he began his career as an amateur at Scunthorpe United. He started his professiona ...

. In the 1974–75 season, Rankin won the award for the second time, becoming the first of ten players to do so as of 2016. Another goalkeeper, Tony Coton, is the only player to have received the title for a third time. Coton is one of four players to have won the award in consecutive seasons, the others being

Wilf Rostron John Wilfred Rostron (born 29 September 1956) is an English former footballer who made nearly 500 appearances in the Football League. He spent ten years with Watford and had shorter spells with Arsenal, Sunderland, Sheffield Wednesday, Sheff ...

in 1982–83 and 1983–84, Tommy Smith in 2007–08 and 2008–09, and most recently,

Troy Deeney Troy Matthew Deeney (born 29 June 1988) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for and captains club Birmingham City. Deeney started his professional career at Walsall. He spent a brief spell on loan with Southern Leag ...

in 2013–14 and 2014–15. Eight winners of the award have represented their country at full international level, of whom only John McClelland went on to become Watford's Player of the Season for a second time. Towards the end of each season, fans vote directly for the Player of the Season. Historically this has been conducted by post, but in recent years it has taken place on the '' Watford Observer's'' website. This system was earmarked for change to a match-by-match rating system in 2009, but in March 2010, the ''Observer'' decided to revert to the traditional method of voting.

Winners

: :''Statistics correct at end of 2018–19 season.'' Tom Cleverley 2015

Statistics

Footnotes

References

;General * ''Players of the Season sourced to:'' * ''Pre-1998 player information sourced to:'' * ''Post-1998 player information sourced to:'' * ''Further information sourced in an individual player's notes section as necessary.'' ;Further reading * * ;Specific {{featured list Player of the Season Association football player of the year awards by club in England Association football player non-biographical articles