Erling Haaland, Sam Kerr are English footballers of the year

MANCHESTER, England: With a massive 82 percent of the votes, Erling Haaland was named England’s footballer of the year on Friday in recognition of his record-breaking first season at Manchester City. The award could be the first of a host of trophies for the Norway striker, whose goals have put City in contention for a treble of titles: The Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup. Haaland’s remarkable debut English season has already seen him set a new league scoring record of 35 in a single campaign.

In total, he has 51 goals in 47 games in all competitions, blasting his way through virtually every defense that has stood in his way. “I try every single day to be the best I can be, and to be recognized like this means a lot to me,” Haaland said. “I have loved my time at City so far – my teammates are incredible, and they provide me with the chances to score goals.

I want to thank all of them, because I could not have won this award without them.” The award is voted for by the Football Writers Association in England. Previous winners have included greats such as World Cup winner Bobby Charlton, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. Haaland’s landslide win came after votes from around 800 members of the writers association.

Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard came second and third respectively. Haaland was already tipped to be one of the best strikers in the world when he joined City from Borussia Dortmund last year and had been linked with the likes of Real Madrid and Manchester United. But even given his reputation at Dortmund, he has probably exceeded expectations at City, for which he has racked up six hat tricks.