Aayush Majumdar, an International Sports Journalism master’s student at St Mary’s University, Twickenham (SMU) has won the Football Writers’ Association Student Writer of the Year Award in the Unheard Voices Category.
Aayush took first place in the category with his piece on the UK’s first asylum seeker football team to be registered with a county football association (FA), Hilltop United FC in Carlisle.
Alongside Aayush, seven sports journalism students at SMU were shortlisted for this year’s FWA Student Writer Award across three categories. They include Jonathan Coffey, Laura Howard, Emile Nuh, Jaden Dakwa, Eduardo Tansey, and Sam France.
Sam came second in the Hugh McIlvanney Award, Laura came second in the Vikki Orvice Award for female writers, while Emile was third in the Unheard Voices category.
Aayush received his award at the FWA Footballer of the Year dinner in London on May 16th, in addition to receiving a cash prize of £1000.
Manchester City Women's Khadija 'Bunny' Shaw also attended the Dinner to pick up her Women’s Footballer of the Year award. Phil Foden, who was awarded Footballer of the Year by the FWA, was unable to attend but sent a video message which was played during the evening.
Speaking on his achievement, Aayush said, “It feels quite surreal. It is a very prestigious award and I’m honoured to win. I’m grateful for the support from all the lecturers at St Mary’s, from whom I’ve learned a lot. It’s also a great achievement to have so many from our course shortlisted across the three categories.
"The actual Award evening was amazing. Gareth Southgate congratulated me on my win and I was sat next to goalkeeping legend Pat Jennings.”
Sports Communication and Marketing lecturer Richard Lenton added, “Aayush has been an absolute joy to teach since he came to St Mary’s. His positive attitude and work ethic are infectious, and he’s really developed his all-round skills over the course of the year. Seeing our students win awards has happily become a regular occurrence, but it’s certainly no less special, and Aayush absolutely deserves this accolade. I’m sure he’ll go on to have a wonderful career in the industry.”
You can read Aayush, Sam, Laura, and Emile’s award-winning entries by clicking this link.