Each year the EFL Awards honour the best performers in the three divisions below the Premier League. There are various awards for the second, third and fourth tiers of English football, including Player and Young Player of the Season, and Team of the Season, all awarded separately in each division. On top of those, there are broader EFL awards for things such as Goal of the Season, Diversity, Fan Engagement and community-based prizes.
Our focus here, however, is the Championship, and the three main awards related to it, recognising the second tier’s best of the best. These are the Player of the Season, the Young Player of the Season, and the Team of the Season.
A Little bit of Housekeeping
Before we dive into the winners – and look at some players who may consider themselves unlucky to have missed out – it is worth pointing out a few things about these awards. The award ceremony took place on the 27th of April 2025 in London. According to the EFL, all the various prizes are “judged by a panel of leading experts from the football industry and stakeholders”.
That isn’t the most transparent judging process but the honours are generally considered to be fairly and impartially awarded. What is perhaps more important to note, however, is that the nomination process and voting run from late March into mid-April, with a shortlist of players, managers and so on typically released around 10 days prior to the award ceremony.
This can lead to some seemingly strange results, especially if a team or player performs especially badly or particularly well on either side of the votes being cast. Things are often very tight across all levels in the EFL and so it is possible that a player or manager’s achievements, in terms of their team’s finishing position come the end of the season, can sometimes seem out of kilter with the EFL Awards.
Championship Player of the Season
The EFL Awards were first held in 2006 and Phil Jagielka was the first man to be named Championship Player of the Season while playing for Sheffield United. He went on to play for Everton, and 40 times for England and he has been followed by other full England internationals such as Kevin Phillips, Rickie Lambert, Danny Ings and Ollie Watkins. Other notable winners include QPR maverick Adel Taarabt, Fulham Aleksandar Mitrovic and, last year, Leeds’ Crysencio Summerville, now of West Ham.
This year one might have assumed that another Leeds player would land the honour, given they have topped the table for over half the season. Or maybe it would go to a Burnley player, given they too have clinched automatic promotion.
However, it was Brazil-born Gustavo Hamer who the powers that be decided to honour. The Sheffield United midfielder had a fine season and was instrumental in so much of the good football that Sheffield United played. He is an exciting footballer to watch and scored four times for the Blades in the Premier League last year.
However, his form dipped a little in April when it mattered most – and the results of his club plummeted, with Chris Wilder’s men losing four out of their first five games in the month. Even so, he has still played 40 times in the Championship, registering nine goals and seven assists. In a Sheffield United side that was nowhere near as exciting or as productive in front of goal as Leeds, he was a real bright spark. Should the Blades fail to go up, the 27-year-old may well be a target for a PL side.
Young Player of the Season
Initially, the Young Player award applied to the whole of the EFL, rather than there being separate divisional prizes. In 2007 Gareth Bale was the winner, and this year’s Championship Young Player of the Season will have to go some to match the career of the magnificent Welshman.
In truth, he will have a pretty tough task to be the best player in his own family, with Sunderland’s Jobe Bellingham getting the nod in 2024/25. If he can earn a move to Real Madrid, like Bale and brother Jude, he will have done something right but the 19-year-old Sunderland midfielder has a long way to go before he will be dreaming of anything like that.
History was made at the #EFLAwards on Sunday! 🏆@SunderlandAFC star Jobe Bellingham was named @EASPORTS Championship Young Player of the Season, five years on from his brother Jude ❤️
— EFL (@EFL) April 30, 2025
The Black Cats will hope to earn promotion via the play-offs but if they are not successful – and perhaps even if they are – Bellingham will surely be a target for a number of Premier League clubs. The England U21 international is a similar sort of player to Jude and is also still settling into his best position.
Mainly operating from a more defensive midfield role, he can pretty much play in any central position. He has played 39 times in the Championship and delivered four goals and three assists, ahead of the final clash of the campaign. He saw off fellow shortlisted players Sheffield Wednesday’s Shea Charles and CJ Egan-Riley of Burnley to grab the award.
Championship Team of the Season
The Team of the Season featured all three of the players who made the shortlist for the main player prize. That meant that Burnley’s James Trafford was in goal and Hamer was in midfield (alongside Young Player of the Season Bellingham), whilst Leeds’ Dan James was part of the attacking front three.
The full team is shown below, with Burnley’s Scott Parker selected as the manager.
- James Trafford (Burnley)
- Jayden Bogle (Leeds United)
- CJ Egan-Riley (Burnley)
- Maxime Esteve (Burnley)
- Harrison Burrows (Sheffield United)
- Ao Tanaka (Leeds United)
- Jobe Bellingham (Sunderland)
- Gustavo Hamer (Sheffield United)
- Dan James (Leeds United)
- Josh Sargent (Norwich City)
- Borja Sainz (Norwich City)
It is little surprise that Burnley’s keeper and defence were recognised, with the Clarets conceding just 15 goals from their 45 games thus far. With one game to go, Trafford has a chance to reach a staggering 30 clean sheets in the Championship this term.
It is perhaps more surprising that only one of Leeds’ attacking players made the cut, given the West Yorkshire side have racked up an impressive 93 goals from 45 games. That is 26 more than any other side. Surprisingly the second-highest scorers in the Championship at this stage are way down in 14th place, but that does explain why two of Norwich’s prolific attackers made the team.
Leeds’ Junior Firpo may also feel aggrieved not to have been honoured given he has produced four goals and 10 assists from just 32 games as a left back. Ultimately such awards are always a little subjective and when we throw in the vagaries of the voting window, there will always be some players who are unlucky – and others who are perhaps a little lucky. Nonetheless, all the footballers mentioned have had a brilliant season and we’re sure that Firpo and his Leeds teammates will be more than happy to settle for promotion over individual glories.