SAFFC, along with Japanese side Albirex Niigata (Singapore), were the biggest winners of the S.League Awards Night as they bagged four and three accolades respectively.
The Warriors’ Mislav Koraglan picked up the Top Scorer of the Year and the Player of the Year awards for his 33-goal debut season. While SAFFC failed to win any titles this season, the Croatian still managed to edge out Tampines Rover’s Aleksandar Duric and Home United’s Frederic Mendy to the Player of the Year title.
His effort throughout the season steered SAFFC to a third-place finish.
“I don’t think I deserve it because the team did not win anything,” said the 29-year-old, who will continue to don the blue of SAFFC next season.
“This is football, not tennis, and it is a team sport so I have to be humble. I’m very happy and grateful for this award and I think this has been the best season of my life. I’ll be working hard from now on and look forward to the future.”
“For now, I don’t care about personal awards. It’s time for some team awards.”
Indra Shahdan also got an award for reaching the 200-goal milestone while SAFFC won the Fan Club of the Year as well.
For Albirex, their most successful season of their seven-year stay in the S.League was rewarded when Tatsuro Inui and Koichi Sugiyama captured the two major awards – the Young Player of the Year and Coach of the Year.
The League Cup champions also collected the Fair Play award as they had the least bookings.
Inui beat Hariss Harun and Safuwan Bahrudin, both of the Courts Young Lions, to the Young Player of the Year award while Sugiyama got the nod for Coach of the Year ahead of Home United’s Lee Lim Saeng and Tampines’ Steven Tan.
“The competition for Coach of the Year is very tough this year,” said the Japanese coach, who collected his first ever coaching accolade.
“I don’t think I’m the best coach because they are two quality coaches and they are good in their own way. Without the competition from the other clubs, we wouldn’t be able to play good quality football.”
“I am only able to achieve this award by the effort of the team and the club. It is great to see the whole club working in the same direction and seeing the players play as a unit. That was the highlight of the season for me.”
The Courts Young Lions’ Safuwan Bahrudin, who has grabbed the headlines with his outstanding performances with the national team, won the People’s Player of the Year award. In a season which is describes as “the best of his career”, he promised to do better as he ventures into the Malaysia League with the Singapore Lions.
“It is a good way to end my season,” said the 20-year-old.
“This award is a big achievement for me and it will motivate me to do well in the coming season. I would like to thank the fans for the support that they’ve shown me throughout this time.”
