For a third straight Singapore Premier League (SPL) season, the Lion City Sailors have a representative gunning for the honour of being named the season’s best performer as the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) earlier this afternoon (7 November) announced the list of nominees for tomorrow’s FAS Awards Night 2022 – an annual event to recognise the best on and off the pitch in domestic football.
Belgian winger Maxime Lestienne has had an outstanding first season with the Sailors, contributing a league-high 23 assists to go with 12 goals in 25 appearances, as he was named as one of three players nominated for the AIA Player of the Year (POTY) award.
The 30-year-old will have to fend off competition from the SPL’s top two goalscorers of the 2022 season, namely Tampines Rovers’ Boris Kopitović (35 goals) and Albirex Niigata (S) forward Kodai Tanaka (33 goals).
Gabriel Quak was the 2020 recipient of this award, while the duo from the Sailors’ 2021 title-winning campaign, Stipe Plazibat and Jorge Fellipe, lost out to Hougang United’s Tomoyuki Doi the following year.
There is also joy on the Women’s Premier League (WPL) front after the Sailors Women completed a memorable unbeaten title-winning campaign, with Nur Izzati Rosni nominated for the Deloitte WPL POTY award alongside Albirex’s Manami Fukuzawa and Tanjong Pagar United’s Haziqah Haszman.
The 23-year-old has claimed the Golden Boot with her 10 goals in 11 appearances and it could be triple happiness for her as she is also in the running to win the Deloitte WPL Goal of the Year award for her brilliant long-range strike against Still Aerion.
Teammate Dorcas Chu is also up for the Deloitte WPL Young Player of the Year award – along with Haziqah and Hougang United’s Dhaniyah Qasimah – after an impressive campaign in which she finished as the league’s third-highest scorer with seven goals in 11 appearances.
Meanwhile, Yeong Sheau Shyan will also jostle with Albirex’s Nahar Daud and Tanjong Pagar’s Samawira Basri for the Deloitte WPL Coach of the Year honour – in a season which witnessed the Sailors Women become Invincibles.
To round off a long list of potential Sailors nominees, goalkeeper Beatrice Tan will have the honour of being the first-ever Deloitte WPL Golden Glove winner with the most number of clean sheets – six – throughout the season. Incredibly, the 30-year-old conceded just one goal all season.
The FAS Award Nights will be hosted as a full scale in-person event for the first time since 2019. It was hosted virtually for the past two pandemic-affected years. Themed Legacy, this year’s event will aptly be held at Orchard Hotel – the venue where the first-ever domestic league Awards Night was held in 1996.
Sailors’ Nominees for FAS Awards Night 2022
AIA Player of the Year: Maxime Lestienne
Deloitte WPL Player of the Year: Nur Izzati Rosni
Deloitte WPL Young Player of the Year: Dorcas Chu
Deloitte WPL Coach of the Year: Yeong Sheau Shyan
Deloitte WPL Goal of the Year: Nur Izzati Rosni
Deloitte WPL Golden Boot: Nur Izzati Rosni (winner)
Deloitte WPL Golden Glove: Beatrice Tan (winner)
