End-of-season football awards ideas

The proper awards

These are the ones people care about, so base them on something you can show:

• Player of the Season: the best average rating or the most player of the match votes, among players who played at least half the games.
• Golden Boot: most goals. Golden Glove: most clean sheets in goal.
• Top Assister: most assists. Often the one the player is secretly proudest of.
• Most Improved: the biggest step up from last season. The best award for keeping people coming back.
• Iron Man (or Ever Present): most games played. Reliability is a skill in a weekly game.
• Best Partnership: the two who win most when they're on the same side.
• Goal of the Season: put three to a vote, described in words if nobody filmed them.
• Clubman or Clubwoman of the Year: the one who books the pitch, chases the money and brings the bibs.

Funny awards for an adults' team

Funny awards land best when they're about a moment everyone remembers. A few that most groups have a winner for:

• The Hollywood: the most dramatic fall of the season.
• Sat Nav Award: most often late, with the best excuse.
• The Pundit: most opinions, fewest goals.
• Best Miss: the open goal that somehow wasn't.
• Hairdryer Award: the loudest half-time team talk nobody asked for.
• Lost Property: most things left at the pitch.
• The Ghost: the one who says they're in and isn't.
• Kit Crime of the Season: boots, socks or a headband that needed discussing.
• Group Chat MVP: most messages, fewest replies about who's playing.
• Wooden Spoon: lowest goals-to-confidence ratio, given with love.

Awards for kids' teams

For juniors, every player should go home with something, and each award should be about something they control. Avoid anything that ranks children against each other in front of their parents.

• Always Smiling, Best Effort, Best Team Player and Most Encouraging Teammate.
• Brave Keeper Award for whoever took a turn in goal.
• Never Gives Up, Best Listener and Most Improved Skill (be specific: weaker foot, first touch, tackling).
• Coaches' Award and Players' Player, with the players voting.

How to run the vote

• Anonymous: people vote honestly when nobody sees who they picked. A form or a poll that hides names works.
• One rule for eligibility: for example, at least half the games, so a strong player who turned up twice can't win Player of the Season.
• Numbers first: let goals, games and clean sheets decide what they can, and vote only on the rest.
• A deadline: two or three days, then close it.

Making the presentation night work

Book somewhere you can hear each other, start with the funny awards and finish with Player of the Season, announced in reverse order. Keep each speech to a minute, have the trophies ready before anyone arrives, and get a photo of the whole group, which is the bit people keep.

Can't get everyone in a room? Post them in the group chat, one an evening, with a picture. A card for each winner or a Team of the Week-style picture of the Team of the Season goes down well. Weekly awards build up to these: see man of the match for running a vote every game.

Questions