West Ham’s Declan Rice and Jarrod Bowen will compete with Chelsea trio Antonio Rudiger, Thiago Silva and Jorginho to win Premier League Player of the Year 2021-22 at the London Football Awards in March.
Rice has been one of the few stars of England’s Euro 2020 campaign to maintain top form this season, while Bowen has directly contributed to 13 Premier League goals for David Moyes’ side.
A competitive shortlist is completed by Rudiger, Silva and Jorginho, who have continued to impress for Thomas Tuchel’s European champions.
Moyes is a contender to win Manager of the Year for consecutive seasons but faces competition from Tuchel and Sutton United’s Matt Gray, who has led the League Two club into play-off contention and the semi-finals of the Papa John’s Trophy in their first season in the Football League.
Crystal Palace’s Patrick Vieira and Fulham boss Marco Silva, whose side lead the way in the Championship, make up the shortlist.
Sutton also have a contender for Goalkeeper of the Year in Dean Bouzanis, who will compete for the award with Aaron Ramsdale, of Arsenal, Tottenham’s Hugo Lloris, last year’s winner Lukasz Fabianski, of West Ham, and Chelsea No1 Edouard Mendy.
Fulham and QPR dominate the shortlist for EFL Player of the Year, with R’s duo Ilias Chair and Chris Willock competing with Harry Wilson, Neeskens Kebano and Aleksandar Mitrovic.
Fulham’s Fabio Carvalho is the sole EFL representative on the Young Player of the Year shortlist, along with Crystal Palace pair Conor Gallagher (on loan from Chelsea) and Tyrick Mitchell, last year’s winner Bukayo Saka, of Arsenal, and Tottenham’s Oliver Skipp.
In the women’s game, Arsenal trio Leah Williamson, Katie McCabe and Kim Little are battling with Chelsea’s Sam Kerr and Mackenzie Arnold, the West Ham goalkeeper, to win WSL Player of the Year.
Tottenham pair Jessica Naz and Esther Morgan will compete with West Ham’s Melisa Filis on a smaller shortlist for Women’s Young Player of the Year.
The judges, which include the Evening Standard, will also decide on Community Project of the Year, which has been narrowed down to contributions from Arsenal, Chelsea and QPR.
The prestigious Outstanding Contribution to London Football award, won by Roy Hodgson last year, will be announced separately.
The 2021-22 London Football Awards are supported by the Willow charity, which was founded by former Arsenal keeper Bob Wilson and his wife, Megs, and the ceremony will take place at the Camden Roundhouse on March 3.
There will be a Goal of the Season award on the night, to be decided by a public vote.
