Voting for the best of the 2012-13 Premier League season has closed, and the winners of the 5th EPL Awards can now be revealed.
In one of the most competitive awards since its creation in 2009, more than 36,000 votes were cast by soccer fans worldwide in the awards to recognize the best that the Premier League has to offer including everything from blogs, footballers, books and video networks to podcasts, commentators, forums and more.
The soccer fans have spoken! Here are the winners of the 2012-13 EPL Awards — both Readers' Choice Awards and Editor's Choice Awards:
There have been so many worthy candidates between the goal posts this season that it was difficult to pick out a winner. You, the readers, gave the nod to Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea, who was a worthy winner based on a dodgy start earlier this season. However, he turned his season around in triumphant fashion.
The Editor's Choice Award went to Sunderland and Belgium goalkeeper Simon Mignolet who was one of the main reasons why the Black Cats were able to stay up this season. Aston Villa's Brad Guzan was a close runner-up.
It was one of those bizarre seasons in the Premier League, especially in the first half, where there were so many defensive lapses by teams throughout the table. As the season went on, defenses solidified themselves, but there were still some players who rose to the top. In the Readers' Choice category, Leighton Baines won first place for his brilliant performances for Everton down the left wing (and his many exquisite goals from free kicks). Baines also received the Editor's Choice Award.
Gareth Bale had one of the best seasons for any British footballer in the Premier League in recent memory. The only catch was whether to put him in the midfield or striker category since he played in and out of both throughout the season. We decided to place him in the midfield category, where he was up against some brilliant competition. In any other year, Juan Mata, Marouane Fellaini or Santi Cazorla would have had a fighting chance to win the top honors.
While it was easier to select a winner from the midfield and defender categories in this year's award, the question of who the best striker was during the season was much tougher to answer. You, the readers, voted Robin van Persie as the best – by some margin. But while Michu and Christian Benteke were worthy contenders, the Editor's Choice Award goes to Luis Suarez despite his horrible incident against Branislav Ivanovic. Suarez's performances on the pitch transformed this Liverpool side this summer, throughout the entire year until his suspension.
After Manchester United lost the title last season on the final day, we all knew that United would be more committed than ever to try to regain the title. What we didn't expect was the level of consistency across the entire season where Ferguson was able to keep his team firing on all cylinders despite injury problems and plenty of rotation.
Based on his herculean performances throughout the entire season, there can be only one Player of the Year — Gareth Bale.
As we've seen this season, there's a massive difference between an average commentator and one of the world's best who has been working his craft for decades. Therefore, it's great to see that the Readers' Choice Award has gone to Ian Darke of ESPN, who will no longer be commentating Premier League matches for ESPN due to the TV network losing the rights. It's a worthy achievement by Darke for his hard work throughout the season. While growing older but wiser, the nod for the Editor's Choice Award goes to Martin Tyler, who is still at the top of his game. We never grow tired listening to him, and it's always a pleasure to hear his voice.
Gary Neville has taken his role as co-commentator to new heights this season, which has been accentuated by his performances on Monday Night Football on Sky Sports. While Neville picks up the Readers' Choice Award, Stewart Robson gets the note for Editor's Choice Award winner due to his no-holds-barred opinion and analysis during Premier League matches.
Nick Geber's World Soccer Radio show on Sports Byline is the worthy recipient of this year's Readers' Choice Award for Best Radio Show. The daily show features opinion and discussion about the world's game. The recipient of the Editor's Choice Award for Best Radio Show is Andy Goldstein's Sports Bar, which features a nightly talk show between Goldstein and Jason Cundy along with special guests including Noel Gallagher and many others.
The gold standard for soccer podcasts, The Guardian's Football Weekly podcast, has been knocked off its perch and surprisingly has won zero awards this year. It's been overthrown by Men In Blazers who have won this year's Readers' Choice Award. For the Editor's Choice Award, there's a surprise winner with the Beyond The Pitch podcast picking up the recognition as an intelligent and informative podcast that is a must-listen.
It was a close race between the Merseyside podcasts of Followtonians and The Anfield Wrap, but Followtonians has won the gold and has been named Readers' Choice winner. Meanwhile, The Spurs Show, despite being without Phil Cornwell for most of the season, still manages to win the Editor's Choice Award for its brilliant guests and always entertaining discussion.
A podcast presenter can either make or break a show. Luckily, the Men In Blazers podcast — winner of this year's Readers' Choice Award — is in very capable hands thanks to Michael Davies. At the same time, another accomplished host is Anto from the Beyond The Pitch podcast who has won the Editor's Choice Award for his brilliant interviews and informative discussion.
The Men In Blazers podcast continues to grow in popularity with soccer fans, especially Stateside, hanging on to Roger Bennett's every word as he waxes poetically about break dancing, Kung fu fighting, Downton Abbey and the English Premier League. As a result, Bennett is this year's recipient of both the Readers' Choice Award and Editor's Choice award.
For transfer news and the latest stories, Caught Offside has long been a popular destination for soccer fans. Not surprisingly, the site has won this year's Readers' Choice Award. Meanwhile, Yahoo's Dirty Tackle consistently delivers a daily dose of irreverent news and off-ball stories, and deservedly wins the Editor's Choice Award.
The role of club blogs can't be understated as they're often the destination for soccer fans wanting news about their favorite team. In this year's Readers' Choice Award, the Manchester United blog Republik of Mancunia came from behind to beat the Swansea City SCFC2 blog. The Editor's Choice Award, meanwhile, goes to Everton's ToffeeWeb.
Soccer (or football) blogs continue to thrive in the industry and have branched out over the years to expand their coverage. With a lot of competition from very skilled writers, this year's Readers' Choice Award deservedly goes to Brooks Peck of Dirty Tackle, while the Editor's Choice award goes to Andrew Mangan (aka ArseBlogger) for his daily uncensored opinions about the Gunners on ArseBlog.
The category of best soccer writer is always a competitive one, with so many choices from around the globe. Roger Bennett from ESPN FC notched first place in the Readers' Choice Award for his always entertaining and informative articles, while Daniel Taylor from The Guardian picked up the Editor's Choice Award for his delivery of hard-hitting news stories throughout the entire season.
So much of our news, analysis and opinion is gleaned from the Internet on a daily basis, so the role of online coverage is more important than ever when it comes to Premier League soccer. Bleacher Report has emerged as a key destination for soccer news. The site picked up this year's Readers' Choice Award. Despite layoffs and cutbacks, The Guardian's football section picked up this year's Editor's Choice Award.
In this brand-new category in the EPL Awards, the battle to win 'Best Video Show' was the most competitive of all categories. Copa 90, producers of the brilliant Manchester United: The Religion and The Real Oviedo Story, were the eventual winners with KickTV a close second. The Editor's Choice Award went to The Football Special, a new innovative video show that fuses computer animation with memorable characters and brilliant voices.
In many ways, football forums are the heartbeat of club supporters online where fans congregate and share their opinions without fear of other club supporters trying to barge into the conversation. There's been a long tradition of good English football forums, and it's with great pleasure to announce that Everton's Grand Old Team has won the Readers' Choice Award, while The Oatcake (Stoke City) wins the Editor's Choice Award.
Britain always produces so many wonderful soccer books each year, and 2012 was one of those times when there were so many to choose from. Quite convincingly, you – the readers – voted Anthony Clavane's book, Does Your Rabbi Know You're Here?, as the number one choice. The Editor's Choice Award went to Duncan Hamilton for his book The Footballer Who Could Fly about the relationship between he and his father, and their journeys to watch the Newcastle United greats play.
Readers' ChoiceWinner: Does Your Rabbi Know You're Here? – Anthony ClavaneRunner-up: Lonely At The Top – Philippe Auclair
Founder and publisher of EPL Talk, The Gaffer (aka Christopher Harris) is a journalist who has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications as well as on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT. Harris, who lives in Florida, has supported Swansea City since 1979. Harris launched EPL Talk in 2005.
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