Having secured the Graham Taylor OBE Player of the Season award Sebastian Prodl, who wasn’t expecting to win the accolade and was genuinely shocked to receive it, has dedicated it to the legendary former Watford boss.
Edging out Heurelho Gomes, apparently by little more than 20 votes, a proud, if not somewhat overwhelmed, Prodl has said winning the Player of the Year award will go down as one of his proudest moments as a footballer.
Acknowledging his teammates, coaching staff, outgoing boss Walter Mazzarri and of course the fans in his acceptable speech, Austrian international Prodl was a mainstay in Mazzarri’s defence making the second most appearances in a season of his career to date, bettered only by those he managed at Werder Bremen in 2010-11.
When asked how highly this moment would figure in terms of those proudest moments, if it would indeed top it, Prodl told the Official Website: ‘I think it will. I don’t realise it this evening, but once I’m on my holidays, of course I will remember this season as a very good one from a personal point of view.’
The late Graham Taylor is an iconic figure at Watford, he always has been and always will, but his status in the English game probably wasn’t truly understood until his untimely death earlier this year, his status at Vicarage Road hasn’t been lost on the Austrian though.
Prodl dedicated his award to Graham Taylor, adding: ‘This award means a lot to me, the Graham Taylor Player of the Season Award. Graham Taylor was a big manager for this club, I met him once. I dedicate it to him. I know how important he is for this club. He will go down in history, and this award will go down in my own history.’
This top honour was won by Prodl having already scooped the Individual Performance of the Season award for his marshalling of Manchester United’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
