Schwarzer and Kantarovski Receive the PFA's October Honours

Professional Footballers Australia (PFA), with the support of LUCRF Super, is proud to announce Fulham’s Mark Schwarzer and Newcastle Jet’s Ben Kantarovski as October’s PFA Footballer and Young Footballer of the Month respectively.

The nominations were made by the PFA Awards Committee based on performances so far this season for club and/or country.  

Socceroo veteran Schwarzer has once again been in outstanding form, racking up 5 clean sheets in 12 games and making an important penalty kick save for his club against Roma in Fulham’s 1-1 Europa League draw at Craven Cottage.  The runner up to Tim Cahill in the voting for the 2009 PFA Footballer of the Year Award, he also kept clean sheets for the Socceroos against Holland and Oman in the early part of the month.  

Young Socceroo Kantarovski was for many Australia’s best player at the 2009 FIFA U20 World Cup in Egypt.  Still only 17, Kantarovski will remain eligible for the competition’s next edition in 2011.  When national team commitments have allowed, Kantarovski has been a leading player in Newcastle’s A-League campaign having established himself as a key member of the Jets’ starting XI.  

Schwarzer and Kantarovski are the third players to win the monthly awards and become likely nominations for the PFA Footballer of the Year Awards to be presented in May 2010.  The monthly nominations to date are:   

 

Month	PFA Footballer of the Month	PFA Young Footballer of the Month
August	Jason Culina	Rhys Williams
September	Josh Kennedy	Adama Traore
October	Mark Schwarzer	Ben Kantarovski

The PFA Awards Committee consists of some of the greatest Australian former professional players and current leading football journalists, including Francis Awaritefe, Dave Davutovic, Craig Foster, Andrew Harper, Stan Lazaridis, Michael Lynch, Paul Okon, Andrew Orsatti, Paul Trimboli, Tony Vidmar and David Zdrilic.  PFA Chief Executive Brendan Schwab is the non-voting Chair of the Committee.