Buendia joins City royalty as Barry Butler Memorial Trophy winner

Canaries fans have been voting for their Player of the Season since 1967, when Terry Allcock was the inaugural winner at the end of a second-tier campaign that had finished in mid-table, with the man who scored 127 goals as a striker playing mostly in defence at that latter stage of his career.

Emi Buendia's name has been added to the Barry Butler Memorial Trophy (Image: © Norwich City)

The trophy was donated to the club by former chairman Geoffrey Watling and named after defender Barry Butler, who had died in a car crash the previous year at just 31 years old, having made 349 appearances for Norwich - and has now been won by 46 players across 55 seasons.

The only player to have won the award three times was Grant Holt, with the talismanic striker winning in consecutive season between 2010 and 2012 as City rose from League One to the Premier League under Paul Lambert.

Wes Hoolahan was presented the Barry Butler Memorial Trophy in 2017 (Image: ©Focus Images Limited www.focus-images.co.uk +447814 482222)

Ken Foggo, Kevin Keelan and World Cup winner Martin Peters all lifted the trophy twice in the 1970s and following them as two-time winners were Kevin Drinkell, Bryan Gunn, Iwan Roberts and Darren Huckerby.

The only players to have won both of their awards at the end of top-flight seasons were Keelan, Peters and Gunn.

Buendia becomes the first South American winner of the award, although he is only the third player from that continent to represent the club, with Jonas Guttierez and Luciano Becchio also being from Argentina but only making a combined 20 appearances.

The 24-year-old creative midfielder has so far scored 23 goals in 119 games, contributing 41 assists, and becomes the 46th different player to have their name etched onto the trophy.

He becomes one of the few players born outside of the UK to win the award, joining team-mates Tim Krul (Holland) and Teemu Pukki (Finland), as well as Wes Hoolahan (Ireland) and Seb Basson (France) - although the club's record appearance holder Keelan was born in India while his father was serving in the army, before returning to England as a child.

The only Norfolk-born winners so far are defender Dave Stringer, in 1972 as City won their first promotion to the top flight, and winger Dale Gordon, in 1989 as the Canaries finished fourth in the top flight and reached an FA Cup semi-final under Stringer's management - although 1994 winner Chris Sutton was also raised in Norfolk from a young age.

Buendia finished ahead of skipper Grant Hanley in the public vote this season, with Oliver Skipp in third, and followed up his win a few hours later by winning the Championship Player of the Season award.

That divisional award was lifted by team-mate Pukki in 2019 but its equivalent was also won by Huckerby in 2004, as Division One Player of the Season, before the EFL Awards was established in 2007.

PLAYER OF THE SEASON WINNERS

1967: Terry Allcock

Terry Allcock was the inaugural Player of the Season winner in 1967, being presented the Barry Butler Memorial Trophy by Geoffrey Watling (Image: Archant)

1968: Hugh Curran

1969: Ken Foggo

1970: Duncan Forbes

1971: Ken Foggo

1972: Dave Stringer

1973: Kevin Keelan

1974: Kevin Keelan

1975: Colin Suggett

1976: Martin Peters

1977: Martin Peters

1978: John Ryan

1979: Tony Powell

1980: Kevin Bond

1981: Joe Royle

1982: Greg Downs

1983: Dave Watson

1984: Chris Woods

1985: Steve Bruce

1986: Kevin Drinkell

1987: Kevin Drinkell

1988: Bryan Gunn

1989: Dale Gordon

1990: Mark Bowen

1991: Ian Culverhouse

1992: Robert Fleck

1993: Bryan Gunn

1994: Chris Sutton

1995: Jon Newsome

1996: Spencer Prior

1997: Darren Eadie

1998: Matt Jackson

Iwan Roberts was presented the Barry Butler Memorial Trophy by Geoffrey Watling in 1999 (Image: Archant)

1999: Iwan Roberts

2000: Iwan Roberts

2001: Andy Marshall

2002: Gary Holt

2003: Adam Drury

2004: Craig Fleming

2005: Darren Huckerby

2006: Gary Doherty

2007: Darren Huckerby

Darren Huckerby's second Player of the Season win was in 2007 (Image: Copyright Aaron Murrell/Archant 2007)

2008: Dion Dublin

2009: Lee Croft

2010: Grant Holt

2011: Grant Holt

2012: Grant Holt

2013: Sebastien Bassong

2014: Robert Snodgrass

2015: Bradley Johnson

Bradley Johnson was City's Player of the Season in 2015 (Image: ©Focus Images Limitedwww.focus-images.co.uk+447814 482222)

2016: Jonny Howson

2017: Wes Hoolahan

2018: James Maddison

2019: Teemu Pukki

2020: Tim Krul

2021: Emi Buendia