Milos Dimitrijevic's stellar season for Sydney FC has been recognised as perhaps the greatest by any player in 10 years of the club's history after he became the first ever to win all three major individual awards in a single season.
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The 31-year-old Serbian can lay claim to having outshone the likes of Dwight Yorke and Alessandro Del Piero after becoming the first player to be unanimously voted as the best player of the year by the club and his peers in one campaign.
Dimitrijevic was acknowledged as Sydney FC's A-League player of the year, the players' player of the year and also the members' player of the year at the club's end-of-season awards night on Tuesday. The classy midfielder emerged as the architect of Sydney's style of play in a season that was the club's best finish in the A-League in five years.
"I am very pleased to have won these awards," he said. "To win such trophies at a big club like Sydney FC is very special and I am glad that I could help the team reach our goals for this season. I would like to thank all of our fantastic members and fans for their support and it is a big honour to be chosen by them for their player of the year."
The Sky Blues also named their team of the decade at the awards night, which in honour of championship-winning coach Vitezslav Lavicka - who was named the club's coach of the decade, was drawn up in that team's diamond 4-4-2 formation. Their team of the decade was; Clint Bolton; Alvin Ceccoli, Simon Colosimo, Mark Rudan, Seb Ryall; Terry McFlynn; Alex Brosque, Karol Kisel; Steve Corica (c); Alessandro Del Piero and Marc Janko. Substitutes; Vedran Janjetovic; Byun Sung-hwan, Milos Dimitrijevic, Terry Antonis and Dwight Yorke.
There was no room in the team for former marquees John Aloisi and Juninho or famous guest players Benito Carbone and Kazuyoshi Miura.
On the other side of town, Western Sydney Wanderers captain Nikolai Topor-Stanley was named his club's player of the year at the Wanderers awards night as a result of his brave performances throughout a turbulent season. Topor-Stanley often played through injury as he helped guide the club to an historic Asian Champions League title. The role of goalkeeper Ante Covic in the ACL was recognised as he was named their best player for the continental competition.
W-League player Keelin Winters was named the best women's player and also won the club's golden boot award for top goal scorer. Romeo Castelen was named by his peers as the players' player of the year while youngster Steve Kuzmanovski won the best young player of the year award.
