Declan Rice has landed his first award of a new season -the Young Player of the Year Award at the London Football Awards 2019.
He received the prestigous award at the Battersea Evolution from Tony Cottee after beating Crystal Palace’s Aaron-Wan Bisska, Arsenal’s Matteo Guendouzi, Karlan Grant of Charlton Athletic and Eberechi Eze of Queens Park Rangers to the award.
He said: “It’s a huge honour to be here tonight and it’s very special for me to have this award in my hands
“I want to say thank you to my manager, Manuel Pellegrini, for believing in me and trusting me this season, and giving me the opportunity.
“I also want to thank my teammates and my family; my mum, dad, brothers, and girlfriend, because without them I wouldn’t be here today.”
He became the first Hammer to win at the London Football Awards since Dimitri Payet was named the Premier League Player of the Year in 2016.
ClaretandHugh says: That this comes as absolutely no surprise to anybody is the biggest tribute of all to Declan whose amazing journey this season has been nothing short of extraordinary. Remembering how he was hooked at Liverpool – later admitting his basic error of being dragged out of position as the reason – and seeing him now hailed as the best young player in the country and an England certainty is an amazing achievement. This award will clearly be the first of many for a lad who is totally committed to improving his game. Beyond that, he is leading the way in ensuring other academy prospects commit to the club as has been the case with Grady Diangana who agreed a new deal immediately after his former Under 23 skipper had done so. With the likes of Ben Johnson, Nathan Holland and Connor Coventry on the way through they will all see that under this manager they will get their chances. A big well done to Declan – a great night for the young man.