The Professional Footballers' Association Merit Award (often called the PFA Merit Award, or simply the Merit Award) is an award given by the Professional Footballers' Association (the PFA) for meritorious service to football.PFA Merit Award 1974-2007
The award was first given in 1974, and was won (jointly) by Bobby Charlton and Cliff Lloyd. The first woman to win the award was Steph Houghton in 2019. In 2022, the award was separated into two: women's and men's.
The most recent winners of the award are Sir Kenny Dalglish and Karen Carney.
List of winners 1970s YearWinner(s)Note 1974 Sir Bobby Charlton CBE, OBE First winners of the award Cliff Lloyd 1975 Denis Law CBE First winner of the award from outside England 1976 George Eastham OBE 1977 Jack Taylor OBE 1978 Bill Shankly OBE 1979 Sir Tom Finney OBE
1980s YearWinner(s)Notes 1980 Sir Matt Busby OBE 1981 John Trollope MBE 1982 Joe Mercer OBE 1983 Bob Paisley OBE 1984 Bill Nicholson OBE 1985 Ron Greenwood CBE 1986 England World Cup squad 1966 1987 Sir Stanley Matthews CBE 1988 Billy Bonds MBE 1989 Nat Lofthouse OBE
1990s YearWinner(s)Notes 1990 Peter Shilton OBE 1991 Tommy Hutchison 1992 Brian Clough OBE 1993 Manchester United European Cup squad 1968 Shay Brennan and Tony DunneJoint first winner of the award from outside Great BritainJoint first winner of the award from outside the United Kingdom Eusébio Joint first winner of the award from outside Great BritainJoint first winner of the award from outside the United Kingdom 1994 Billy Bingham MBE 1995 Gordon Strachan OBE 1996 Pelé First winner of the award from outside Europe 1997 Peter Beardsley MBE 1998 Steve Ogrizovic 1999 Tony Ford MBE
2000s YearWinner(s)Notes 2000 Gary Mabbutt MBE 2001 Jimmy Hill OBE 2002 Niall Quinn 2003 Sir Bobby Robson CBE 2004 Dario Gradi MBE 2005 Shaka Hislop CM 2006 George Best 2007 Sir Alex Ferguson CBE 2008 Jimmy Armfield OBE 2009 John McDermott
2010s YearWinner(s)Notes 2010 Lucas Radebe 2011 Howard Webb 2012 Graham Alexander 2013 Manchester United Class of '92 2014 Donald Bell VC 2015 Steven Gerrard MBE Frank Lampard OBE 2016 Ryan Giggs OBE 2017 David Beckham OBE2018 Cyrille Regis MBE2019 Steph Houghton MBE First female to receive award.
2020s YearWinner(s)Notes 2020 Marcus Rashford MBE 2021 Gordon Taylor OBE 2022 Roy Hodgson CBE Hope Powell OBE First time men's and women's PFA Merit awards were separated 2023 Ian Wright OBE Jill Scott MBE 2024 Dean Lewington Fara Williams MBE 2025 Sir Gareth Southgate OBE Emma Hayes OBE 2026 Sir Kenny Dalglish MBE Karen Carney OBE
Breakdown of winners Winners by country CountryNumber of wins 40 8 2 1
References
External links The Official Website of the Professional Footballer's Association