Daniel Penha will join Western United’s honour roll after the Brazilian was awarded the 2023/24 A-League Men Player of the Season medal at the Club’s awards night on Wednesday.
The honour capped off a night where Penha cleaned up across the board with another three awards – Fans’ Goal of the Season, Club Person of the Season and the Golden Boot.
Penha was sensational from start to finish in Green and Black, leading the vote strongly ahead of Angus Thurgate in second and Ben Garuccio in third. Tomoki Imai and Matthew Grimaldi rounded out the top five.
The No.11 hit the ground running straight away in his return to the Isuzu UTE A-League Men, leading the votes in Round 2, 4 and 5 to build an early lead on his teammates.
Penha received full marks from the voting panel – consisting of coaches and football department staff – on four separate occasions as he terrorised opposition defences on a weekly basis.
One of those perfect performances came in the inaugural Unite Round against Macarthur FC where Penha struck twice, including a thunderbolt from outside the box which the fans voted as the best goal of the campaign.
Back-to-back starring performances against Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne Victory in March cemented Penha atop the standings. His vote count could have been even more emphatic had he not missed the final four matches of the campaign due to injury.
Overall, Penha scored seven goals and laid on three assists for his teammates in 22 appearances across the season.
Penha joins some of Western United’s greatest names on the list of past Player of the Season winners, coming alongside Alessandro Diamanti, Tomoki Imai, Ben Garuccio and Josh Risdon.
The 25-year-old’s quadruple recognition at Western United’s Gala Night was worthy recognition of an incredible season both on and off the pitch, marking one of the greatest individual seasons in the Club’s history.
