Super Kev picks up Football League Award
Prolific striker Kevin Phillips has been honoured with the Sir Tom Finney awardat The Football League Awards 2015.
Phillips received the award at the gala ceremony at The Brewery, London, on Sunday evening in front of over 600 guests from clubs, sponsors and the football industry.
The Football League Awards 2015 mark the 10th year of the awards, which celebrate on and off pitch excellence across The League’s 72 clubs. This year all 72 clubs were nominated for at least one award.
Kevin retired as a player at the end of last season after a memorable playing career that saw him score 272 goals in 660 senior appearances. In a career spanning two decades, Kevin played for Watford, Sunderland, Southampton, Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion, Birmingham City, Blackpool, Crystal Palace and Leicester City – scoring goals wherever he went.
He also represented England on eight occasions, and in 1999/00 his 30 top-flight goals for the Black Cats saw him become the only Englishman to have won the European Golden Boot. A winner of the Football League Championship on three occasions, Kevin has won promotion to the top flight on five occasions, including in his penultimate season as a player, when his extra-time penalty for Crystal Palace in the 2013 Championship Play-Off Final at Wembley fired the Eagles to the Premier League.
On winning the award, Phillips said:
“I’m extremely proud and truly privileged to accept this award and I’d like to thank The Football League, which has given me so many fantastic memories during my 20 years as a professional footballer. It’s all I ever wanted to be, I devoted my life to it and the game has given me so much in return.
It’s a bit more special that the award is now so closely associated to Sir Tom Finney – one of the greatest players, gentlemen and role models English football has ever seen. If my career can help inspire a fraction of the people Sir Tom’s did, I’ll count it among my finest achievements.”
The Sir Tom Finney Award is presented by The Football League to a player who has had an outstanding career in its competitions and was renamed permanently in honour of the Preston North End and England legend following his death in 2014.