Kajal Malhotra is up for a Berkshire Football Award in the category of Player of the Season (Female) sponsored by Eddie Stobart Logistics.
The full-back played 23 times for the Magpies in the FA Women’s National League South West Division One as Maidenhead played their way out of relegation trouble this season.
One nomination for the award said: “Kajal has been so so good this season. She has been such an asset to Maidenhead United Women for many years now, and was deservedly awarded Manager’s Player of the Year for her performances at LB and RB (despite actually being a CB)! She puts the work in at training and off the pitch, and it shows in her game as her fitness is unmatched by anyone. She has consistently kept top strikers and wingers in her pocket this season and has adapted her game fantastically to a first season at full-back. She never complains and will play wherever she is needed – she is always the first name on the team sheet and is often deployed in the position that will allow her to match to other team’s best player (which shows just how trusted she is within the team). She is such a loyal player, having played for Maidenhead Boys and Girls when she was younger, going off to study maths at a top uni, and then returning to the Women’s team. She shows that you can balance a successful career with National League football if you are willing to put the work in, which she clearly is!”
Another added: “This player has been consistently outstanding all season. She has been a key player in ensuring Maidenhead’s amazing comback in the National League this year, playing every minute of every game (bar one game where she was away). Despite playing out of position this year (RB or LB whereas she is usually a CB), Kajal was rightly awarded Manager’s Player of the season as recognition of her performances. She is a player that is usually taken for granted and flies under the radar since we have all come to expect the top performances from her. As a defender especially, it is easy to miss just what an impact she has on games (despite the countless goal line clearances at key moments and assists she has racked up this year!) She is one of the hardest working and fittest players on the pitch who never stops running, she throws her body into every challenge and block, and is one of the coolest heads on the pitch, despite only being 23. I think she 100% deserves this award – is easy to forget just what an impact a consistently brilliant defender has on a team!”
Agree that Kajal Malhotra should be up for the Player of the Season award? Or do you have someone else in mind? Let us know in the nomination form below:
Berkshire Football Awards news
Nominations open for:
- Match Day Experience
- Supporter of the Season
- Volunteer of the Season
- Best Image
- Save of the Season
- Goal of the Season
- Best Website or Blog
- Best Content Creator
- Best Community Campaign or Content
- Correspondent of the Season
- Physio of the Season
- Manager of the Season (Women’s Game)
- Manager of the Season (Men’s Game)
- Referee of the Season
- Young Player of the Season (Female)
- Young Player of the Season (Male)
- Player of the Season (Female)
- Player of the Season (Male)
- The Darrell Freeland Award for Service to the Local Game
Yes! The awards are taking place at the marvellous Double-Barrelled Brewery in Reading and we’ll have food available. Tickets will be limited but on sale from 29th May. If you’d like to know when so you don’t miss out, make sure you’ve signed up to our email newsletter here.
Scroll down to the bottom of this article for the nomination form. Before you do that though, here’s what the judging panel are looking for when choosing the shortlist.
What’s the story? Tell us exactly why the person or place should be considered. We hate to get all ‘X Factor journey’ on you but the more detail you can include, the better we can argue for your nominee for the short list.
The sort of details we love to see include things like player awards, goals, clean sheets and any other significant contributions to the footballing community – obviously within the 2023/24 season.
We’ll publish all the nominees for the Berkshire Football Awards as we receive them.
You can view all the 2024 nominees so far here.
Want to know who’s previously won what at the Berkshire Football Awards? There’s a big long page with all the previous winners here.
Nominations will be open until midday on Monday 27th May 2024.
The Long List will be published on Wednesday 29th May and the Short List on Friday 31st May.
Once nomination window has closed, the nominations in each category will be put before a panel of judges for a decision, the top four announced online and the winners at the awards night on Wednesday 19th June.
We will accept nominations for people out of area, the only prerequisite is that the reason for nomination is that it must be because of an affiliation with a club we cover on Football in Berkshire (a full list is at the bottom of this page). We will present certificates and a trophy to the winners.
- You can nominate as many people as you like for each award
- Please try and avoid nominating your own family members.
- Due to difficulties in obtaining permissions under child protection laws we won’t consider any player under the age of 16 for nomination in any of the categories
Nomination Form
Nominations for the 2024 Berkshire Football Awards are now closed!
What’s next? Look out for the Long List of all the nominations which will be published here and across all our channels by midday on Wednesday 29th May 2024.
The Short List for each category will then be published at 2pm on Friday 31st May 2024. At that point, tickets will be made available to attend the awards night at Double-Barrelled Brewery in Reading on the evening of Wednesday 19th June 2024. If you’d like notification of when tickets are available, sign up to our newsletter here.
