Beth Mead has been voted the 2022 BBC Sports activities Character of the 12 months, changing into the primary girls’s footballer to win the distinguished award.
It accomplished a clear sweep of awards for the Lionesses, who claimed Workforce of the 12 months, whereas supervisor Sarina Wiegman was named Coach of the 12 months.
Mead loved a surprising 2022, registering six targets and 5 assists to scoop the participant of the event and golden boot at Euro 2022 because the Lionesses lifted their maiden piece of silverware.
It caps a 12 months stuffed with particular person accolades for the Arsenal ahead, who has already been named Arsenal’s participant of the season for 2021/22, England’s participant of the 12 months and the BBC Girls’s Footballer of the 12 months.
Curling’s Eve Muirhead completed third, and cricketer Ben Stokes was second.
The 27-year-old turns into the primary footballer to win Sports activities Character of the 12 months since Ryan Giggs in 2009, and he or she joins an illustrious record of former footballing winners: David Beckham, Michael Owen, Paul Gascoigne and Bobby Moore.
Emma Raducanu gained the award in 2021, and Mead’s triumph means there are back-to-back feminine winners of SPOTY for the primary time in 50 years – since Princess Anne and Mary Peters gained the award in 1971 and 1972 respectively.
Mead’s spectacular 2021/22 marketing campaign got here off the again of lacking out on a spot in Workforce GB’s Olympic squad the earlier summer time, which was then adopted by her mum’s ovarian most cancers prognosis. She has spoken about how each occasions ignited a fireplace inside her forward of the following season.
“For me, soccer’s all the time been my first real love,” Mead stated as a part of her SPOTY VT. “My mum sacrificed a lot; she labored two jobs to pay extra cash for my dad to drive me to coaching. I would not be the place I’m right now with out them.
“I do know I am not going to share all these moments with my mum for the remainder of my life anymore. So to share that second along with her final summer time was simply unbelievable.”