LONDON: Eden Hazard of newly-to-be-crowned Premier League champions Chelsea has been voted the Football Writers’ Association player of the year, adding to the PFA award he won last month.

The 24-year-old Belgium attacker collected 53pc of the votes from the 300-plus journalists who were balloted in the poll which was launched in 1948 when [Sir] Stanley Matthews was the inaugural winner.

Tottenham striker Harry Kane finished second with Hazard’s team-mate and captain John Terry third.

Hazard, who signed for Chelsea in 2012, scored 20 goals in all competitions this season for the champions.

FWA chairman Andy Dunn, of the Sunday Mirror, said: “The list of truly world-class players on the Football Writers’ Association roll of honour is a long one and Eden Hazard is a worthy addition.

“A creator, a goalscorer and the hardest of workers, Hazard has been a constant source of threat for the Premier League champions.”

Hazard is only the third Chelsea winner and the first since Frank Lampard in 2005.

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