West Ham: ‘Ballon D’awson’ - How Craig Dawson has become a Hammers cult hero

David Moyes’s West Ham team is never about the individual over the collective, but there is perhaps one player who best sums up the group of players making history in claret and blue.

Craig Dawson was signed for just £2million from relegated Watford and has defied doubters to become a new Hammers cult hero who is being dubbed “Ballon D’awson”.

The 32-year-old was a colossus for West Ham in Lyon on Thursday night as West Ham stormed into the semi-finals of the Europa League.

It was not just his trademark header, which set West Ham on their way to a 3-0 win. Dawson was a rock for 45 minutes in the first leg when the Hammers went down to 10 men and, after a shaky start alongside Issa Diop without the injured Kurt Zouma in France, was a titan again in the second leg.

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