Appreciated by a few, underrated by many. That sums up the football career of Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson. The Sunderland-born player, who went to Liverpool from the hands of one of the club’s greatest legends ever, Sir. King Keneth Dalglish, to end up being the direct successor to Steven Gerrard, was nominated as Footballer of the year by the Football Writers’ Association.

Facing off Man United’s Marcus Rashford, Liverpool teammates Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mane, and the favorite on paper, Man City’s Kevin de Bruyne, the Liverpool captain was the chosen one of the important award in the English football.

Of course, if you stop and analyze only individual performances throughout the whole Premier League season, KDB would be the winner by a mile. However, there’s much more to Football than only your skills with the ball on your feet.

I mean, Jordan’s passing accuracy, his intensity, and mainly, his leadership on the pitch has dragged him to this deserved award. Liverpool lost or played below their average when Hendo wasn’t on the pitch, and that means a lot.

The Liverpool captain has spoken out on winning the individual award:

“I would like to say that I am very flattered by winning that. Just look at the previous winners, some of whom I had the blessing of playing, to see how valuable this prize is, ”said Henderson.

“I owe a lot to many people, but it is to my current teammates that I owe the most. They were incredible and also deserve this award – Jordan acknowledged.

Jordan is Liverpool’s heart, and he got Gerrard’s blessing, as the latter passed on his captain armband to Henderson back in 2015, when Stevie retired from the Reds.

Henderson lived up some high and downs, but mainly downs before the Jurgen Klopp era, as he was almost sold, but kept on going to prove his worth to the team, and had the honor to captaining Liverpool in winning the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, and the Premier League.

Aged 30, the FWA Footballer of the year award winner owes a lot to Jurgen as well, as the German was the main man on pushing Jordan’s football to the absolute next level.

Congratulations on winning the personal award, and the Premier League, Jordan!