Liverpool, Jul 24 (IANS): Liverpool skipper Jordan Henderson on Friday won the prestigious Football Writers' Association's (FWA) Footballer of the Year award. Henderson was the driving force in the Liverpool midfield that saw them clinch their first top-flight title in 30 years.

Henderson was named as the winner of the annual prize ahead of Kevin de Bruyne (Man City), Marcus Rashford (Man Utd) and teammates Virgil Van Dijk and Sadio Mane.

"I'd like to say how appreciative I am of the support of those who voted for me and the Football Writers' Association in general. You only have to look at the past winners of it, a number of whom I've been blessed to play with here at Liverpool, like Stevie [Gerrard], Luis [Suarez] and Mo [Salah] to know how prestigious it is," Henderson was quoted as saying by Liverpool's official website.

"But as grateful as I am I don't feel like I can accept this on my own. I don't feel like anything I've achieved this season or in fact during my whole career has been done on my own.

"I owe a lot to so many different people -- but none more so than my current teammates -- who have just been incredible and deserve this every bit as much as I do," he added.

The title completes a full circle for Henderson, who has lifted multiple titles with Liverpool in the last couple of years. Under his leadership, 'The Reds' have won the Champions League, Premier League, Super Cup and also Club World Cup.

Henderson becomes only the 12th Liverpool player to win the prize, after Ian Callaghan (1974), Kevin Keegan (1976), Emlyn Hughes (1977), Kenny Dalglish (1979 and 1983), Terry McDermott (1980), Ian Rush (1984), John Barnes (1988 and 1990), Steve Nicol (1989), Steven Gerrard (2009), Luis Suarez (2014) and Mohamed Salah (2018).