Jon Walters ‘privileged’ to win player of the year award

Jon Walters capped a memorable weekend and a memorable year when, having scored for Stoke City in their 2-1 win at Watford on Saturday, he was last night named Ireland’s Player of 2015 at the annual FAI/3 International Awards.

Robbie Brady was named the Young International Player of the Year while there was never any doubt but that Shane Long would pick up the Goal of the Year gong for his celebrated strike which delivered a surprise victory and three vital Euro qualifying points against Germany.

Walters, with five goals Ireland’s joint top scorer (with Robbie Keane) in the Euro qualifiers, said it was “a privilege” to join the elite group of Irish players who have claimed the top prize in the 17-year history of the awards.

“Yeah, it’s unbelievable and you can’t really describe what it means,” he said afterwards. “It’s nice to get a personal accolade but it’s down to the team and the staff and they are a big part of the reason too.” For Walters, the France 2016 qualifying campaign was by some distance his most memorable in the green shirt, culminating in his two goals in the decisive play-off second leg against Bosnia.

“Yeah, I think the way it all fell, you couldn’t have written the script better,” he said. “It was the campaign I played the biggest part in, compared to other ones. Obviously I had a taste of the Euros four years ago and it was very disappointing how it ended, but there are a lot of players still around from then and hopefuly that experience will stand to us. It’s been a successful campaign and hopefully it will be a successful summer.” Since last we spoke, Walters had also heard how his post-Bosnia selfie with Michael D Higgins turned out to be a breach of protocol the president was only too happy to indulge.

“Yeah, I saw that,” he laughed. “It was just a bit of craic in the changing room. It’s moments like that you can get away with. It’s one for the future for the kids to see.” Walters joined up with the bulk of the Irish squad at last night’s awards ceremony in RTÉ ahead of this morning’s first training session in Abbotstown before the back to back friendlies against Switzerland, on Friday, and Slovakia, next Tuesday at the Aviva.

“It’s an important week,” said Martin O’Neill. “We’ve got the two games, and a number of players to look at it in training and maybe give a chance to play but, naturally, we want to be competitive in the two games as well.”

Robbie Brady is a doubt for the upcoming friendlies after sustaining a shoulder injury in his match-winning appearance for Norwich on Saturday. The player will undergo a scan in Dublin this morning.

With O’Neill having trimmed his squad to 33 for the upcoming games, the players to miss out are Kieran Westwood, Simon Cox, Anthony Stokes, Chris Forrester, Paul Green, Greg Cunningham, and Darron Gibson who were all named in the original provisional panel of 40.

Other winners last night included Alan Browne (U21), Denise O’Sullivan (Senior Women) and Richie Towell (Airtricity League), while Tony Cascarino was inducted into the Hall Of Fame, Gerry Smith’s Region’s Cup-winning team received the Special Merit Award. Gianluca Vialli was named International Personality Of The Year.